COACH PARTY OF SERBIAN, FOREIGN WRITERS STONED IN KOSOVO
BBC Monitoring International Reports - April 26, 2006, Wednesday

Text of report by Montenegrin Mina news agency

Decani, 25 April: A coach carrying Serbian and foreign writers, who have been visiting Metohija in the last two days as part of the "Pilgrimage and Brotherly Love" campaign, was stoned in Decani on two occasions, although there were no injured persons in the incident.

A large group of young men stoned the coach on the roundabout near Decani and then leaving the town towards the Visoki Decani monastery.

During the day, the delegation of writers visited the village of Retimlje near Orahovac from where, as the Belgrade media relay, a number of Serbs were kidnapped in 1998.

The writers' delegation faced on this occasion verbal insults from local [ethnic] Albanians, which were directed in particular at the Kostic family whose 14 members were kidnapped by Kosovo Liberation Army [KLA - UCK in Albanian] members in July 1998.

The Kostic family members and the Nikolic, Bozanic and Banzic families visited their villages of Opterusa and Retimlje for the first time in nearly eight years.

The visit to Orahovac, Velika Hoca, Zociste, Visoki Decani monastery and the [Serbian Orthodox Church's] Pec Patriarchate was organized by the Coordination Centre [for Kosovo-Metohija] and the Association of Writers of Kosovo-Metohija.

Source: Mina news agency, Podgorica, in Serbian 2027 gmt 25 Apr 06

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Copyright 2006 BBC Monitoring/BBC Source: Financial Times Information Limited

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