Kosovo Serbs slam controversial Albanian memorial plan
The Serb National Council of Kosovo (SNV) has called on the ethnic Albanian authorities in Pristina to give up their intention of building a memorial centre and residential buildings for the veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the village of Staro Gracko near Lipljan (central Kosovo)
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Staro Gracko is the site of one the most monstruous crimes committed against Serbs since the end of the 1999 conflict, as 14 Serb farmers were slaughtered in the summer of 1999.
The perpetrators of the crime have never been tracked down or tried, but are largely considered to have been members of the KLA.
"SNV holds that such an intention of ethnic Albanian authorities is utterly cynical and mocks the victims of Albanian terrorism, and it holds that the Albanians are deliberately trying to implement it in the environments which are of vital importance for the Serbs' survival in the province so as to additionally jeopardize their safety and prevent the return of expelled Serbs to Kosovo," the SNV statement said.
"Such a position and intention of ethnic Albanian municipal structures and temporary institutions in the province represents a kind of ethnic cleansing of Serbs from the province, which is why the Serb National Council demands from authorised bodies of the international community to react at once without any conditioning whatsoever and to prevent any further intentions of mono-ethnic society dreamers, and thus provide conditions for multi-ethnicity, for the survival and return of Serbs to Kosovo," the Council concluded.
