Petkovic: 2004 plight of Serbs must not happen to any nation

BELGRADE - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Petar Petkovic said on Tuesday the plight Kosovo-Metohija Serbs had experienced in 2004 should not and must not happen to any nation or social group.

In an official statement, Petkovic said that 22 years ago - on March 17, 2004, a several-day wave of anti-Serb violence by ethnic Albanian extremists had begun with the aim of an exodus of Serbs from Kosovo-Metohija and destruction of everything that was reminiscent of Serbian state and national presence in the territory.

The drowning of ethnic Albanian children in the Cabra village, for which the ethnic Albanian extremists falsely blamed Serbs from the neighbouring Zupce village, was the pretext for the outbreak of violence, Petkovic noted.

The fact that large crowds gathered quickly to carry out synchronised attacks on a large number of Serb villages and neighbourhoods, as well as on religious and public buildings, shows that the violence and ethnic cleansing in the March pogrom had been planned and prepared for a long time, he added.

He noted that eight Serbs had been killed and more than 900 others wounded or injured in the violent spree, and that more than 4,000 Serbs had been expelled from their homes and that, as a result, no Serbs remained in six cities and nine villages.

He added that 935 Serb homes had been destroyed or severely damaged and that 35 Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries, as well as more than 100 church buildings, had been destroyed as well.

"Even though it is clear that the mass violence, which was taking place simultaneously on many locations across Kosovo-Metohija, was politically engineered, to date, no one has been called to account for one of the biggest crimes in modern history, just like no one has been called to account for executing or ordering many other terrorist attacks on Serbs after 1999," Petkovic noted.

The mass lynching of Serbs was a part of a plan aimed at full ethnic cleansing in Kosovo-Metohija that failed to completely materialise in March 2004 and remains, to this day, an unfulfilled dream of extremist political structures in Pristina, he added.

"As it remembers its killed citizens and destroyed holy sites, Serbia, with President Aleksandar Vucic at its helm, is determined in its stance to never allow, at any cost, anything similar to happen again. Aware of the value of peace and stability in the region, our country will continue to be a constructive international factor and one that resolves disputes and disagreements by peaceful and democratic means," Petkovic noted.