Serbs violence against Albanians, Ivanovic's role in it

This is an article dated February 10, 2000. We are publishing it on the case of the controversy it caused in our society, the murder of Serbian politician Oliver Ivanovic.

Full article:

United Nations police officers have detained a man today while trying to crack their car tires and had attacked a police officer by hurting his eye, the spokesman said. It was a minor incident compared to last week's violence, but reflected the continued tension and rage of Serbs living in the northern part of the city.

Five days after the worst violence the troops had seen in eight months of peacekeeping, many Serbs still curse and threaten foreigners facing them on the street.

A number of Serbs in Mitrovica, including more than dozens interviewed on the streets in recent days, do not seem to have changed their positions since the war against NATO and the arrival of the Nato peacekeeping forces in Kosovo. A large percentage of them for everything bad that happened back then blame Albanians.

More than 10,000 people live in the northern part of this divided city, and nearly a third of them are refugees from other parts of Kosovo. They are willing to take things into their own hands and make some organization that is not seen among Serbs living isolated in enclaves around Kosovo where it is much more likely to be attacked.

Mitrovica Serbs see themselves as defenders of the only Serbian state control point in Kosovo against the Albanian majority. The entire upper part in the north is entirely ethnically clean with Serbs, as in the rest of Srbia. This offers them a direct and secure land link with the Serbian state. With a population of 50,000 Serbs, this area represents half the rest of this community in Kosovo.

All of those dozens interviewed said that the Serb mob, which was making the devastation in Mitrovica on Thursday evening, was instigating Albanians by leaving eight dead, was doing it in response to grenade attack in a Serb-controlled cafe in which fifteen young people were injured.

The “at that moment people remembered everything,” said Oliver Ivanovic, president of the Serb National Council and a prominent community leader. “20 Serbs killed in the area in seven months; 28 others kidnapped or missing everyone has reason to be angry. It was very hard to control them. And Mr. Ivanovic was on the street that evening.

A history teacher named Dragoljub Radenkovic, who has abandoned the house in Vushtrri, a town about six miles southeast of Mitrovica currently inhabited only by Albanians, says people have revolted. For eight months journalists have written only about the murder of Serbs,” he said. You've never seen any Serb killing any Albanian in eight months. There was a lot of anger in people, and at one point he exploded. ”

Among those Serbs, Mr. Ivanovic is a sophisticated English-speaking businessman, who has become the main link with international peacekeepers and administrators in the region, and was the only one to accept the recent crimes of his people.

A lot of bad things happened,” he said. “I can't support that, but I ask you to understand. I was very angry that night too.” Other Serbs, including his deputy, Vuko Antonijevic, applauded the crowd's actions that evening.

Thank you for what you did, Mr. “told you. An estimated 2,000 people on Monday. You show how much you love your city and you can protect it against Islamic terrorism. Markets in the best way the Serbian response to attacks on our youth in cafes. ”

Another speaker, Milan Ivanovic, a physician at the Mitrovica hospital, was against the peacekeeping troops of Natos and United Nations officials who allowed Albanians to persecute the remaining Serbs in Kosovo. They're killing Serbs. They are putting them in concentration camps in Kosovo and Albania, and doing so in front of the United Nations mission,”, he said.

Other ordinary Serbs were repeating these charges on the street, defending the expulsion of Albanians from that part. They did the same for us,” said Smilljana Milosevicq, whose store was attached to Le Bel Ami coffee, where that grenade was fired. She said that Albanians who are still living in the northern part, now under defence added measures by peacekeeping troops, must leave, “because there are no Serbs left in the southern part of the city. ”

But asked how violence could be stopped, most Serbs did not have answers. Some said the recently implemented curfew was a good thing and had improved their safety. Others said that the curfew had left them even more vulnerable and unable to defend themselves.

Much of it thinks Serbs cannot rely on peacekeepers and UN police officers for their own safety, and thus have to defend themselves. We're just defending ourselves, with our own hands,” said the storekeeper, Mr. Milosevich.

Serbs have a well-organised defence that is vital to Mr. Ivanovic. It is composed mainly of strong young people who carry alway-talkile [radiation] and preserve the bridge, inspecting each Albanian going south to the north. If these young people had a role in the violence that followed them that evening, they are unknown.

Mr. Ivanovic said his organisation is against the expulsion of all Albanians from the north of the city in order to make the city one-ethnic, so only Serb, because it would imply more attacks on them by Albanians. He is also opposed to the division of the Serb majority parts from the rest of Kosovo.

Subtitles by Leapin.