Over 30 attacks against Serbs, Serb property in Kosovo

BELGRADE - Over 30 attacks against Serbs and Serb-owned property have occurred in Kosovo-Metohija over the past two weeks but none of the perpetrators have been identified so far, the head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija, Marko Djuric, said on Tuesday.

The incidents have become frequent since the Serbia vs Albania soccer match on October 14, and the extremists who attacked the Serbs and their property and daubed messages of hatred have still not been identified and punished, Djuric said during a session of the Serbian parliamentary committee on Kosovo-Metohija.

Bakeries and sweetshops owned by ethnic Albanians in central Serbia were attacked simultaneously and the state authorities have resolved all the cases, identifying those responsible, and criminal charges have been filed against them, he said.

On the other hand, not a word of condemnation has been heard from ethnic Albanian officials and media in Kosovo-Metohija regarding the attacks against the Serbs and the threats to their security in the province, Djuric said.

"Instead, what we could see is an atmosphere that was made more heated, and in which Pristina remained, and still remains, silent," Djuric noted.

Slogans in Arabic and Albanian in praise of the Islamic State have been daubed on Serb property, which shows that religious extremism and fanaticism is beginning to take hold among some of Kosovo-Metohija's ethnic Albanians, Djuric said.

Serbia's position is that security must be provided to all citizens in Kosovo-Metohija, Djuric said, noting the necessity of a government being formed in Pristina as soon as possible, with participation of the Srpska list.

The fact that the provincial government has still not...