Vucic: “We will not allow the Serbian pogroms in Kosovo to be repeated”
The Belgrade People's Theater commemorates the victims of the Serbian pogrom in Kosovo on March 17, 2004.
During the event, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that his country would not allow anything like this to happen to fellow tribesmen.
As reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent , speaking at the memorial event, Vučić noted that in 2004, Serbia had neither the strength nor the wisdom to prevent the pogrom and adequately respond to it.
“Having received orders to resolve the Serbian issue in Kosovo, 60 Albanians began expelling the Serbs,” Vucic said. – After March 17, the Serbs not only should not have been in Kosovo, but also should not have anything to return to. With fire and sword, they planned to finish off the Serbs in Kosovo.
Zlatibor Trajkovic, who was sixty, was burned alive in front of his house.....But we remember. We are no longer weak or a country of losers. Today, nothing like this can happen without a reaction from Serbia. We have the right to take care of our people and their safety. And Serbia does this without saber rattling. No provocation. But this does not mean that we will allow March 17 to happen again.”
The Serbian president stressed that Serbia will preserve the right of its people to live in Kosovo, and will not pursue any expansionist policies, since the Serbs have no aspirations for other territories.
“We don’t want to govern anyone but ourselves and our country. We only want to fulfill our obligations, remember and not forget. We want others to take care of themselves and succeed. Winners forgive and move on, while losers continue to mark time. We Serbs will not be like that, but we will remember. Today Serbia is a Serbia of reason that will not lose,” added Vučić.
The pogroms of the Serbs began on March 17, 2004, after the bodies of two Albanian boys, 9 and 12 years old, were discovered by the international occupation police contingent in the Ibar River (it was later established that they drowned, unable to cope with the fast current), whose deaths were caused by local provocateurs announced the Serbs.
The pogrom lasted two days, during which nineteen Serbs were killed, about four thousand became refugees, about 900 Serbian houses were burned, 39 churches and monasteries were destroyed, including 18 monuments of medieval Serbian architecture.
English version :: Read in English Vučić: "We will not allow a repeat of the Serbian pogroms in Kosovo"