Jevtic: 11 attacks against Serb returnees, property in 2014

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Eleven attacks against Serbs and their property have been registered this year, and the incidents are a direct attack on the process of the return of displaced persons, says Kosovo's minister for return and communities Dalibor Jevtic.

Serb returnees and Serb-owned property in Metohija, in the Klina, Istok and Pec municipalities, were the most frequent targets, Jevtic said in a statement to Tanjug on Sunday.

The perpetrators of those incidents have not been identified to this day, which sends a bad message to Serbs and all returnees, he said.

Jevtic said that he has urged the Kosovo police several times to find the perpetrators and that they responded that the attacks were motivated by property gain.

"It might have been true in individual cases, but the recurring cases are more than theft. They are a direct attack against the process of the return of displaced persons to Kosovo," Jevtic noted.

So far in 2014, 472 displaced persons have returned, said the minister for return and communities, who expects a total of 600 returnees - mostly Serb and Roma - by the end of the year.

It is a very small number of returnees, Jevtic said, adding that he expects a better strategy and more funds next year for projects for the return of displaced persons.

He said that currently there are 30 families who want to return to Kosovo from central Serbia, but that the ministry of return and communities cannot launch the procedure to build houses and provide aid packages to them because the budget revision has not yet been adopted as Kosovo's government has still not been formed.

At this time, the ministry for return and communities does not have the funds required to launch such...