Serb man beaten up in Kosovo-Metohija

GRACANICA - A Serb man was beaten up in Donja Gusterica, Kosovo-Metohija, on Monday and subsequently hospitalised with injuries at a Gracanica clinic.

A female employee of the Donja Gusterica health centre was also physically attacked by the assailants for trying to protect the man and had to be hospitalised as well.

Miroslav Gudzic from the Dobrotin village near Lipljan, Kosovo-Metohija, said the attack had been preceded by a series of traffic incidents involving vehicles driven by ethnic Albanians who had then begun to chase his car.

"They kept following me, I think there were three vehicles," Gudzic said.

To avoid conflict, he drove to the health centre, rushed out of his car and ran to an office in the building for safety.

"They - about five or six of them - went after me. They ran into the office and started hitting and pulling me, trying to drag me out of the office. A worker, or a nurse, was there and tried to defend me, and they attacked her," Gudzic said.

"And then they dragged me out and kept beating me," he said, adding that he did not know who was behind the attack and why.

Gudzic added that the fact he was a Serb driving a vehicle with Serbian licence plates had been the only motive of the attack.

He said the attackers had kept swearing at him for being a Serb.

"They threatened that they would find me anywhere and swore at me. They kept swearing at me and were threatening me all the time. They were screaming - never in my life have I seen so much hatred and bloodthirstiness in people's eyes," said Gudzic, who gave a statement to police after the attack.

Gudzic and the health centre employee are in stable condition.

In a statement, the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija said the attack was another ethnically motivated incident that indicated a deterioration of security in Serb communities in the province and an escalation of inter-ethnic tensions.