Attack on Serb family’s property in Djurakovac

ISTOK - Minister for Communities and Returns in the Kosovo government Dalibor Jevtic said Monday that an attack had taken place on the property of the Serb returnee family Spasic from the village of Djurakovac in the municipality of Istok, in the western part of the southern Serbian province of Kosovo-Metohija (KiM).

Jevtic said that the Spasic family had been stolen their tractor and pointed out that it was yet another in a series of attacks on Serb returnees’ property.

The theft of the tractor owned by Miodrag Spasic’s family is not just a theft of material goods, but also stealing from one the possibility of livelihood, he said.

“It is obvious that that the appeals we are making for finding and punishing those responsible are yielding no results. I think that such misdeeds are a bad message to all returnees - that Kosovo is not a safe place for them - and it has a very bad impact on the process of return and survival,” said Jevtic.

Jevtic condemned the incident, stressing that the Ministry of Returns would persist in doing everything to ensure normal and safe life for the returnees.

This was the second attack on the Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija over the weekend.

In the first one, unknown persons stoned the house and damaged the car of the Nojic family in the Gnjilane region in the province’s southeast.

No injuries were reported but material damage was caused to the house.

The Nojics left Gnjilane in 2000 and returned in 2009, and have been subjected to constant provocation and harassment since.

Before the 1999 Kosovo conflict, Gnjilane had about 12,000 Serbs, and now it has as little as 40.