Resilience of the North Kosovo Serbs Tested Anew

source: facebook.com/kosovskamitrovica

Two Serb children were wounded yesterday when a hand grenade was thrown at their home in the ethnically mixed neighborhood of Bošnjačka Mahala in North Kosovska Mitrovica. That's in Kosovo, the Serbian province occupied by NATO and the EU police force (EULEX) and in the context of local circumstances, it is nothing unusual. Milica (age 9) and Borivoje (age 3) Vučetić were playing in their room when the attacker threw the hand grenade through a window. The wounds were light and the children are in stable condition, although Borivoje may need blood transfusion due to the injuries to the face and neck, dangerously close to vital blood vessels. This was the second bomb attack in the town in 24 hours.

I said this is nothing unusual for the Serbs who remained in Kosovo despite daily attacks on their lives and property. And while the attacks have indeed gotten less bloody over the years - compared to the murder of children in Goraždevac in 2003 or the Pogrom of March 2004 - a new spin is being added to the crimes by the ever better trained representatives of the rogue state of Kosovo. Namely, Besim Hoti, the regional spokesman for the Kosovo Protection Corpse, the police force of the rogue state, announced today that a Serb neighbor of the attacked family has been arrested in relation to this attack. This reminded of the desecration of the Serbian cemeteries two weeks ago in Kosovo, following Serbia's removal of the Presevo monument, when the Radio-Television of Kosovo reported that it was actually the local Serbs who desecrated their own cemeteries to make themselves appear as victims of Albanian terror.

Well, over the course of more than 13 years of occupation, persecution and terror that resulted in Kosovo virtually ethnically cleansed of Serbs, they have had more than enough occasions to present themselves as true victims, but no one wanted to hear them. If no one reacted to the March Pogrom of 2004, when thousands of Serbs came under orchestrated mob attacks south of the Ibar river and had to flee or die, with the Western media ignoring or deliberately misreporting even the UNMIK statements on the bloody ordeal, why would Serbs be making up incidents of far lesser relevance and magnitude now? If the heinous murders of the boys in Goraždevac did not cause global outrage, why would anyone expect last month's destruction of the monument erected by their families in their honor to cause any objective response? Or if their murders didn't disturb hearts of the global community, why would mere flesh wounds of the Vučetić children?

source: facebook.com/kosovskamitrovica

Although Steva and Snežana Vučetić, parents of the children attacked on Monday, have expressed doubts about their neighbor's guilt, Srđan Stojanović is marked as the perpetrator, despite the fact that the KPS is neither legitimate nor objective a police entity in the eyes of the Kosovo Serbs. Not to mention the social media reports by Serb residents of the neighborhood, who alleged that Stojanović was actually the one who transported the wounded children to the nearest medical facility.

The question here is not whether anyone should outright dismiss a possibility of a Serb attacking another Serb in North Kosovo, but how truthful the reports coming from an Albanian source can be, especially in the light of KPS' general ineptitude and notorious unwillingness to deal with crimes committed against Serbs where it was believed Albanians were the perpetrators. The question is not whether there are Serbs capable of this, but whether we can trust the institutions founded in the practice of killing Serbs, raping their women, abducting them and cutting out their organs for sale. For 13 years, attacks on Serbs, their property and their cultural heritage have gone unpunished, reportedly encouraged and oftentimes orchestrated by the Albanian authorities. Serbs died, the perps walked, and that's been a fact of life in Kosovo for 13 years. Now, should the authorities with such a proven track record of disregard for the rule of law be trusted when alleging they caught the perpetrator in this instance, in an unusually short time - for their standards, at least - and he's a Serb?

The fact that weapons were found in Stojanović's home indicated to me that the Albanian police was more interested in targeting an arms-possessing potential enemy rather than looking for the attacker. Of course, that's just a speculation, albeit not an unfounded one because arrests of Serbs deemed dangerous and willing to resist the occupation are not uncommon in Kosovo.

The Vučetić family, as you can imagine, is only interested in the well-being of their children, as are all the benevolent observers, but incidents like this, in such an emotionally charged political environment have far deeper running implications for the Kosovo Serbs who persevere through the oppression and occupation. Their emotional security is being targeted now as well, whereas in the past, the attacks were limited to their lives and property. Their survival and perseverance heavily depended on the fact that it was clear to them who the enemy was, whom to defend against, and who'd have their back. Incidents like the attack on Vučetić family and the contradicting reports and allegations stemming from it sow confusion in the hearts and minds of the Serbs who see their own government in Belgrade increasingly leaning towards cutting them off. If the Vučetić family is convinced by the Albanian authorities that their Serb neighbor tried to kill their kids, while they see their president and prime minister in Belgrade wining and dining with the Albanian officials who inflicted pain and horror on their community and whose actions endangered their very survival, how can they justify not leaving their Kosovo homes or not succumbing to the pressure of giving in to the rogue Albanian authorities?

One can't find a more patriotic and resilient community than the Serbian one in North Kosovo. They have suffered through the Pogrom in 2004, constant disturbances along the lines of separation and in mixed neighborhoods, bloody attacks in the apartheid-resembling enclaves south of Ibar, and finally, attacks by NATO and EULEX, orchestrated to impose the full occupation on them and subjugate them to the NATO-puppet Albanian Kosovo. NATO and the Albanians have killed their children before, but there's never been a doubt about who the enemy was. That was the source of their resilience. With the attack on the Vučetić children, combined with the show of intent by Belgrade to abandon them, the occupiers have taken a new approach: break their spirits by confusing them and blurring the line between their friends and enemies.