Serb priest's family comes under attack

Serb priest's family comes under attack

ORAHOVAC -- Unknown persons late on Tuesday attacked the Parish House in the Serb part of the town of Orahovac in Kosovo.

The building is home to the family of the local Serb Orthodox priest.

The incident happened some 15 minutes after a European championship qualifier between Serbia and Albania was suspended in Belgrade.

According to Radio Kontakt Plus, three young Albanian men passed through the Serb part of the town, shouting "Albania, Albania," smashing beer bottles against the walls of Serb homes and in front of the Serb Orthodox church, where they tore a Serbian flag that was hanging from a street post.

They then used "a sizable rock" to smash a window on the Parish House, while the priest's wife and their two young children were in the room.

Nobody was injured, the radio reported, and said the attackers hanged an Albanian flag on an abandoned Serb house nearby before fleeing the scene.

Local Serbs then went outside to try and comfort and encourage the frightened members of priest Srđan Jernić's family, and said that as the Kosovo police was investigating the scene, Albanians who bought Serb houses and thus moved to this part of Orahovac also showed up to watch the police work.

Witnesses said that one of them wanted to walk his dogs down the street while the investigation was ongoing, and that a member of the Kosovo police "cocked his gun to force him to step back."

Priest Jernić believes that the attack was aimed not at the religious building itself but at himself and his family, considering that the attackers "aimed for the only lighted window."