Serb leaders from northern Kosovo send open letter to Ban

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Heads of the four north Kosovo municipalities sent on Thursday an open letter to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ahead of his tour of the region.

In it, they underlined that the entire Serb community and the four Serb municipalities in the northern part of the province are at serious risk, and that in the process of finding a solution for the Kosovo issue, the UN and UN SC Resolution 1244 must not be circumvented.

Taking into account numerous killings, incidents and pressures, the security situation in Kosovo and Metohija gives a cause for concern, the letter reads, adding that the lives, human rights and freedoms of members of the Serb ethnic community are at particular risk.

Underscoring that in the last 13 years, more than a thousand Serbs were killed, while tens of thousands Serb houses and apartments are still usurped, or were burnt down or demolished, four municipal presidents claim that several hundred thousand Albanians still possess arms, and that they have not been disarmed as was stipulated in UN SC Resolution 1244.

“The fact that more than a thousand (ethnic) Albanians, who committed murders and serous crimes against Serbs, have the full freedom of movement and take part in the political life, as they have not been prosecuted, is yet another cause for concern,” the letter reads.
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Together with Albanian leaders from Priština, certain international actors and power centers intend to the complete the project of Kosovo's independence by using force, the letter adds.