North Kosovo

Patriarch says Kosovo is "Serbian Jerusalem"

BELGRADE -- Patriarch Irinej has said the anti-Serb violence in Kosovo in March 2004 was an attempt to destroy the root of the Serb people and erase their existence there.

BELGRADE - Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Patriarch Irinej said on Monday at a forum commemorating the 10th anniversary of the March pogrom, destruction of Serbian holy sites and exodus of the Serbs from Kosovo, that it had been an attempt to destroy the root of the Serbian people and erase their existence in that area.

Blast rocks Kosovska Mitrovica, no one injured

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA -- A blast caused by an explosive device rocked northern Kosovska Mitrovica early on Tuesday, injuring no one but damaging a passenger vehicle.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Officials of the Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM), the Kosovska Mitrovica self-government and the organization of the war veterans of the 90s marked on Monday the tenth anniversary on the 2004 March pogrom laying wreaths at memorials to victims including two citizens of Kosovska Mitrovica, Borivoje Spasojevic and Jana Tucev.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - OSCE Mission Spokesperson Nikola Gaon stated for Tanjug that according to preliminary results 37,174 voters, or 34.42 pct of the total number, cast their ballots in Serbia's early parliamentary election in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) on Sunday.

Gaon added that no incidents were reported on the day of election.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - A total of 28,416 voters in Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) cast their ballots in Serbia's early parliamentary elections by 6 p.m. on Sunday, and no incidents were reported, OSCE spokesperson Nikola Gaon stated late on Sunday.

Out of this number, 11,552 voters used their voting right in northern KiM, Gaon told Tanjug.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Minister without portfolio for Kosovo-Metohija Aleksandar Vulin has been banned from attending a memorial service for slain Kosovo Serbs that will be held at the St. Nicholas Church in Pristina to mark the tenth anniversary of the March Pogrom, the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija said on Sunday.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - The steering team tasked with establishing the community of Serb municipalities dismissed on Saturday as completely untrue a statement by the Citizens' Initiative Serbia, Democracy, Justice (SDP) on support by representatives of the Serb community in Kosovo-Metohija regarding the idea of forming a so-called Kosovo army.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - The Serb political representatives in northern Kosovo-Metohija backed on Saturday the Serbian government and president in their demand that a "special security force" be set up in that part of the province.

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Leader of Citizens’ Initiative ‘Serbia, Democracy, Justice (SDP) Oliver Ivanovic said Friday that he is feeling safer in a detention center in Kosovska Mitrovica.

Ivanovic was transferred to the detention center in the majority-Serb north Kosovska Mitrovica after spending 45 days and hunger striking for eight days in detention in Pristina.