Serbs in north Kosovo gather for protest rally

Source: B92, Tanjug

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- Thousands of Serbs gathered on Wednesday in northern Kosovska Mitrovica for a rally under the slogan, "Stop Brussels fraud and deceptions".

(Tanjug)

Beta news agency says that the rally was attended by some 10,000 people, while Tanjug puts the number at 5,000.
The protest was organized by the leaders of the four municipalities in the northern, mostly Serb part of Kosovo.

Mayors and local assembly speakers of Kosovska Mitrovica, Leposavić, Zvečan and Zubin Potok all attended.

Those gathered accepted by acclamation a declaration rejecting the establishment of Priština's institutions in their areas, and announced that they would undertake all forms of civil disobedience, including setting up new roadblocks, in order to express their opposition.

They also demanded that Belgrade withdraws from the Kosovo dialogue, held in Brussels, that the agreements reached so far not be implemented, and asked the Constitutional Court to appraise their legality and that of a relevant decree passed by the government in order to implement the deals.

The citizens were seen carrying banners against the EU-sponsored Kosovo dialogue, calls for the Constitution and UN Resolution 1244 to be respected, while others declared that "only traitors would give up on Kosovo", rejected once again "a Kosovo state" and Kosovo's institutions, and at the same time pledging "not to give away Serbian courts”.

Serbs are a majority north of the Ibar River and reject both the authority of the government in Priština, and the ethnic Albanian unilateral declaration of independence made five years ago.