Serbs in Metohija have asked the Russian State Duma for help to get Russian citizenship, in order to prevent the daily attacks by Kosovo Albanians. There are at present 200 thousand Serbs in Kosovo, 21 thousand of whom have made the request.
Thousands of Serbs living in the Serbian part of Mitrovitsa have taken to the streets carrying placards with the inscription “Russia, help”.
Mitrovitsa, which lies on the administrative border between Kosovo and Serbia, resembles the carving up of Berlin 20 years ago. Serbs in Kosovo are hoping that dual citizenship will be a protection for them. More than one thousand Serbs have been killed since KFOR entered Kosovo in 1999. In 2008, Kosovo Albanians unilaterally declared the independence of Kosovo, an internationally recognized integral part of Serbia. The U.S and a number of Western countries rushed to recognize that independence, but two of the UN's five permanent member states - Russia and China, and a large number of other countries strongly opposed the move.Serbs living in Kosovo have loudly declared that they face possible liquidation. The appearance in Serbia of a party, which is calling for the recognition of the independence of Kosovo, has further strengthened the Serbs' fears of extinction.
The mass appeal to Russia for citizenship has caused a scandal in Serbia, and has dealt a serious blow to the authority of the ruling coalition. Belgrade is trying to minimize the damage, and for its part, Moscow will handle the issue most delicately, says Georgy Engelgardt, an employee of the Institute for Slavonic studies. Read the rest on:
No comments:
Post a Comment