Kosovo Serb leader says Orthodox cemetery in northern town desecrated

Kosovo Serb leader says Orthodox cemetery in northern town desecrated
BBC Worldwide Monitoring - November 16, 2005 Wednesday

Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet

Kosovska Mitrovica, 16 November: The chairman of the Serb National Council [SNV] for Northern Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija], Milan Ivanovic, has told FoNet that his family's tomb in the Orthodox cemetery in Podujevo had been opened and desecrated most probably by ethnic Albanians.

Ivanovic claimed that, following the death of his father in August 1998, he had refused to sell a 24-hectare land plot of which 11 was woodland and 13 arable land. He added that this act had most probably provoked ethnic Albanians to desecrate the Ivanovic family tombstone, in addition to several other Serb tombs at the cemetery.

"We were offered a great deal of money for the property located in the vicinity of Merdare administrative crossing [with Serbia] in Kosovo-Metohija territory. We did not intend to sell nor are we selling now the land of our forefathers. This is what most probably provoked neighbouring Albanians to desecrate not only our, but also the tombstones belonging to our neighbours," he said.

Ivanovic cited that his family had donated around a hectare of its land to the Association of World War I Veterans [and Their Children] and to the state [of Serbia], adding that the "Prevara" [Deceit] monument had been erected on that plot of land, because "it is a historical fact that Serb fighters in that part of the province [of Kosovo] were tricked into murder by Albanian Balisti [members of Nazi collaborationist Balli Kombetar units], following an act of deception which is where the name of the monument came from".

He did not rule out the possibility that his predecessors' tombstone had been desecrated due to Ivanovic's political activity.

"Former UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] chief Bernard Kouchner deposed me from the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica [which Ivanovic headed]. Later on, the next UNMIK chief Michael Steiner attempted to arrest me [on charges of fomenting riots], and when he failed to do this he tried to do everything he could to place my name on the US administration's [State Treasury's] black list," Ivanovic recalled.

He added that he wrote a letter to [current UNMIK chief] Soeren Jessen-Petersen on 26 October this year inviting him for a discussion, adding that a representative of the international community had conveyed to him that the UNMIK chief wanted the meeting to take place on 22 November or on 28 November. However in the meantime, Ivanovic said that he had received a message from UNMIK that "Petersen realized in the meantime that he was busy on that day".

"Time will show which game he plays, but the fact is that someone wants to blame us for being the people who refuse dialogue. First they offer us an appointment, we accept it, and then they cancel the meeting," Ivanovic said.

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