Serbian Coordination: Violence and Lawlessness Prevailed by Putting Kosovo and Metohija Under International Administration
On June 10, 1999, the United Nations Security Council passed the Resolution No. 1244, which put a stop on the NATO alliance’s aggression against Yugoslavia, and placed the territory of Kosovo and Metohija under the administration of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and the United Nations international Kosovo Security Force (KFOR), communicated the Serbian Coordination.
They stated that following the adoption of the Resolution No. 1244, a state of violence, anarchy and lawlessness descended on this part of the Republic of Serbia, where the human rights of Serbs and non-Albanians were systemically violated by extremists and terrorists of the Albanian nationality.
“Between June and December 1999, over 242,000 individuals, mostly of the Serbian nationality, were banished from Kosovo and Metohija due to the anarchy, systemic and mass armed violence perpetrated by the Albanian terrorists and members of the paramilitary forces against the Serbia population and non-Albanian minorities,” said the Serbian Coordination’s announcement.
As they pointed out, the ethnically based persecution had genocidal proportions according to the consequences.
“Out of the 437 places where Serbs lived until 1999, excluding the municipalities of Leposavić, Zvečan and Zubin Potok, Serbs were totally expelled from 312 neighborhoods. Between the establishment of the United Nations temporary administration in Kosovo and Metohija and March 2009, over 7,000 ethnically based attacks were reported, over 1,000 Serbs and 104 citizens of other nationalities were murdered, 841 Serbs were kidnapped, and 960 suffered severe injuries. The fates of over 570 missing and kidnapped persons of the Serbian and other non-Albanian nationalities have not been determined to this day, and the return of displaced persons is virtually impossible,” said the announcement.
The announcement pointed out that the collective persecution of Serbs was also followed by the mass destruction of medieval cultural monuments, sacred and religious buildings and cultural and civilizational traces of the centuries-long presence of the Serbian civilization, country and people on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, including over 150 churches and monasteries.
“Apart from that, the systemic violence included the property of banished, forcibly disappeared and murdered persons. In addition to around 27,000 usurped residential units, around 18,000 houses were destroyed since June 1999, and over a million cadastre parcels of land owned by Serbs were usurped. Systemic and mass violence took place in the presence of the “international security and civilian forces”, whose mandate included ensuring public order, peace and security for all citizens in Kosovo and Metohija, demilitarizing the Kosovo Liberation Army, establishing a safe environment, ensuring public safety and order, maintaining civilian law and order, protecting and promoting human rights and ensuring the safe and unhindered return of all refugees and displaced persons to their homes,” said the announcement.
As they pointed out, the violence against Serbs, the remaining institutions of the Republic of Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija has not stopped to this day, taking on new forms, through the violence of the quasi-institutions formed by the illegal Albanian separatist authorities in Kosovo and Metohija.
“The Serbian Coordination points to the historical failure of the UNMIK and KFOR to build a society in Kosovo and Metohija with an elementary rule of the law and respect of basic human rights of the Serbian people. To this day, more than 23 years after the United Nations temporary administration in Kosovo and Metohija was established, there is a “culture” of impunity for crimes committed against Serbs in this territory, an absence of respect for the basic human rights of the Serbs, and an absence of facing the past in the Albanian society,” said the announcement.
The Serbian Coordination reminded that the UNSC Resolution No. 1244, explicitly confirming the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Yugoslavia, that is, the Republic of Serbia as the successor state, is in force, and assumes the obligation of the United Nations and all countries that are members of the United Nations to prevent further systemic violence and violation of human rights, and to contribute to the rule of the law in this part of the territory of the Republic of Serbia and establishment of a true autonomy for Kosovo and Metohija.
