Serbs visit cemetery in southern Mitrovica

Nearly 500 Serbs from northern Kosovska Mitrovica visited Saturday morning an Orthodox cemetery in the southern part of the city on the occasion of the Saturday of Souls, a Christian holiday commemorating the dead.

(kosovocompromisestuff) Sunday, June 08, 2014

Serbs arrived by bus at the cemetery in southern Mitrovica, where about 90 percent of headstones have been torn down, and this time they were not escorted by the Kosovo police.This holiday is our only opportunity to visit the graves of beloved relatives and friends, Serbs said.As Tanjug reporter has learned, the number of destroyed headstones in the ethnic Albanian-dominated southern part of Mitrovica is constantly increasing.Eyewitnesses have said that the dead probably bother the ones who want to erase traces of Serbs in the Albanian areas. Bishop Milija Arsovic of the St. Demetrius Church in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica has said that today we are witnessing yet another great irresponsibility of institutions in the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica given that it is their obligation to take care of the cemetery.In the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, about 90 percent of headstones have been destroyed and Serbs have not been buried there since 1999, while in the northern part of city in the Albanian cemetery there are no damaged headstones.