Kosovo Serb dies of starvation Beta

Kosovo Serb dies of starvation
Beta - October 17, 2003

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Friday – An elderly Kosovo Serb has died of starvation because he was afraid to go out into the street alone, Beta reports.

Sixty-five year old Zivorad Velikinac was taken to the Mitrovica hospital on Wednesday where one staff member described him as looking like a prisoner from Auschwitz.

“Although he lived in central Urosevac, he had not eaten anything for more than fifteen days because his Albanian neighbours stopped bringing him food and he did not dare go into the street alone,” said physician Nebojsa Srbljak.

The president of the Serb National Council, Milan Ivanovic, accused UNMIK of being responsible because Serbs and other non-Albanians still had no freedom of movement in the province.

Ivanovic, who is also a physician in the Mitrovica Hospital, confirmed that Velikinac had died of starvation.

Only about fifteen Serbs live in Urosevac today, down from ten thousand before the 1999 war.