Grenade in Kosovo targets home of Serb politician
A grenade was thrown on Saturday night at the family home of Kosovo Serb returnee Milorad Todorovic near Gnjilane in the east of the province.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Monday, October 12, 2009
No one was hurt in the explosion that happened in the village of Cernica, that is home to some 30 Serb, and several hundred ethnic Albanian families.
Several years after the 1999 conflict, seven Serbs were killed in this village and several dozen others wounded.
Todorovic is an official of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), and has previously worked as adviser to former Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic.
The case was reported to police. Hand grenades were thrown at the house on previous occasions as well; police did not find the perpetrators.
Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic said that he expects "speedy investigation" of the case.
He also mentioned another incident on Saturday, when the house owned by Ruza Ratkovic burned in a fire in the village of Suvi Lukavac.
These incidents, Bogdanovic continued, are "particularly worrying" since the targets of the attacks were returnee families.
"It is quite clear that this is a message to the people who wish to return, that Serbs in Kosovo are not sufficiently protected," the minister said.
Bogdanovic believes that it is also a message to "the international community and Kosovo's institutions", which, according to him, protect the rights of citizens "on paper only".
