A Death in Kosovo Stokes Fears and Threatens Peace
- 6 years ago
A Death in Kosovo Stokes Fears and Threatens Peace
"Serbs have to remain and survive in their homes in Kosovo," Mr. Vucic told the skeptical
audience of ethnic Serbs in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo.
While Mr. Vucic called on the authorities in the Kosovar capital, Pristina, to properly investigate the murder, he said the government in Belgrade was looking into ways to strengthen defenses of Serbs in Kosovo, including from threats originating in their own community — a bitter complaint
that Mr. Ivanovic voiced as people’s main concern in Mitrovica and around the north.
But he said it was better to allow the investigation into the killing to play out
and for political leaders to talk than for "any bullets to fly." At the same time, Mr. Vucic said the talks with Kosovo officials on normalizing relations would not resume in Brussels until the murder was solved.
Mr. Vucic, speaking on Saturday in front of a 14th-century Serbian Orthodox monastery on a snow-swept mountainside, urged the Serbian
population not to give up on Kosovo, a majority ethnic Albanian sliver of land that they once dominated and fought a war over.
"Serbs have to remain and survive in their homes in Kosovo," Mr. Vucic told the skeptical
audience of ethnic Serbs in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo.
While Mr. Vucic called on the authorities in the Kosovar capital, Pristina, to properly investigate the murder, he said the government in Belgrade was looking into ways to strengthen defenses of Serbs in Kosovo, including from threats originating in their own community — a bitter complaint
that Mr. Ivanovic voiced as people’s main concern in Mitrovica and around the north.
But he said it was better to allow the investigation into the killing to play out
and for political leaders to talk than for "any bullets to fly." At the same time, Mr. Vucic said the talks with Kosovo officials on normalizing relations would not resume in Brussels until the murder was solved.
Mr. Vucic, speaking on Saturday in front of a 14th-century Serbian Orthodox monastery on a snow-swept mountainside, urged the Serbian
population not to give up on Kosovo, a majority ethnic Albanian sliver of land that they once dominated and fought a war over.