Kosovo Serb expellees give Natasa Kandic reminders

BELGRADE - The Kosovo Peonies (Kosovski bozuri) movement protested on Tuesday against the Humanitarian Law Fund and its founder and former president Natasa Kandic presenting her with photos of destroyed and burnt down homes and monasteries in the March pogrom in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) in 2004.

On the occasion of the 11th anniversary of this crime committed by ethnic Albanians in Serbia's southern province, representatives of the movement noted that on the day when Pristina declared sovereignty (that is not recognized by Belgrade), Kandic was presented with a decoration by the Kosovo president for exceptional humanitarian contributions.

The Humanitarian Law Fund operates based on projects financed by foreign sources and its work is focused on Albanian victims in KiM. Therefore, the associations of expellees and refugees criticize it for never dealing with Serb victims and persons responsible for the expulsion of Serbs.

Marko Stojkovic of the Kosovo Peonies told reporters that the movement has brought photos of burnt Serb homes and monasteries to Kandic as a gift, so that they could remind her of the way she earned the decoration in Pristina.

In the talks with representatives of the movement, she agreed that the violence that happened on March 17, 2004 was organized in order to expel the remaining Serbs from KiM, and they expressed resentment that she received the shameful decoration from the authorities in Pristina and urged her to stop offending and humiliating Serbia.

Photo Tanjug, N. Milosevic (archive)