Serbian Protest Ends, Further Border Blockades with Kosovo Warned

The protest on the Serbian side that blocked the Jarinje border crossing has ended, with warnings of new actions due to the “difficult living conditions of Serbs in Kosovo,” as stated by the protestors.

The protest was organized by several Serbian NGOs, and according to the organizers, plans are in place to block other administrative crossings, reported “Danas” and “Kossev.”

The organizers described the protest as peaceful.

Professor Bozhidar Mitrović, one of the speakers at the protest, said this was a “warning, a peaceful protest, blocking the Jarinje crossing” and added that there are plans to block other border crossings with Kosovo.

The protestors also presented a series of demands to the Serbian leadership.

Among them were:

• “The Parliament of the Republic of Serbia should declare Kosovo in accordance with the Constitution of Serbia”;
• “In line with Resolution 1244, the immediate return of all 250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand) displaced Serbs from Kosovo in 1999 should be demanded”;
• “Police and customs should withdraw from illegal and fictitious crossings and immediately enable permanent freedom of movement and safe access to our properties in Kosovo”;
• “Arrests and attacks on people and properties must stop immediately”;
• “The Serbian parliament should be moved, and people’s deputies should be immediately transferred to Mitrovica and hold at least one session of the Assembly there”;
• “The Government of Serbia should urgently call and organize elections for Serbs and non-Albanians at the regional and local levels throughout Kosovo and invite the Albanian population to participate in those elections”;
• “All civil and political forces around Kosovo should urgently unite, especially the new Serbian intelligence, on an equal basis and involve everyone in the process of determining the fate of Kosovo. Above all, those who live in Kosovo, from every village, enclave, small town, monastery, our future must depend on us. Local patriotic groups of citizens should be created as part of a large parliamentary network liberated from fear and strengthened for a sustainable daily struggle for human and property rights in Kosovo and to connect with the world”;
• “Respect for the property and religious rights of Serbian and other non-Albanian peoples in Kosovo, the safety and survival of all Orthodox and other sacred sites, especially those on the UNESCO-protected world heritage list, as well as reconstruction from the ruins resulting from communist, Albanian, and fascist terror”;
• “To restore and continue the return process from 1945 to the present day.”