Jeremic: Kosovo is without question the darkest part of Europe

At the UN Human Rights Council meeting, Jeremic said that the Serbian government has almost completely achieved its goal of fulfilling all relevant international standards in that sector but in Kosovo, which is not under the direct jurisdiction of Serbia, "the standards for respecting human rights are falling far short of the acceptable minimum.".

"Serbia is a place of tolerance where almost 30 ethnic communities live in harmony, not merely next to one another. In a drastic contrast to the rest of Serbia, the human rights situation there (in Kosovo) is bleak. In this aspect, Kosovo is without question the darkest part of Europe," Jeremic said.
 
He reminded of the fact that with UN Resolution 1244, passed in 1999, Kosovo was taken out of the direct jurisdiction of the Serbian government.

The minister said that in the last decade, the number of Kosovo Serbs, Roma, Bosniaks and other minorities has decreased by half and that according to statistics of the UNHCR, more than 210,000 persons are still internally displaced.

Jeremic also pointed to the criticisms of the UN Human Rights Committee, which stated that there is widespread discrimination against Serbs and Roma in Kosovo.

Amnesty International had a similarly negative report on the human rights situation in Kosovo, he noted.

Jeremic also stated that since June 1999 in Kosovo, more than 150 Serbian churches and monasteries were destroyed in unprovoked acts of cultural cleansing, among which 35 were destroyed in the March 2004 riots of ethnic Albanians.

"While some holy places have been restored, the general situation is far from normal," Jeremic said.

The minister added these churches in Kosovo are very important to the Serb people, stating that they are not monuments and museums, but a part of Serbia's national past, and warned that the Kosovo Albanian government is representing some holy sites and Serbian Orthodox churches without mentioning the fact that they are Serb.

Jeremic also expressed concern that ethnic Albanian authorities in Kosovo are still prohibiting the use of the Serbian Cyrillic script in public places, official documents and the media.

He said that these facts ought to "shock the conscience of this council", and that they represent a "tragic context" in which ethnic Albanian authorities unilaterally proclaimed independence for Kosovo on February 17, 2008.