Kosovo Albanians Protest Plans to Resettle Serbs

Thousands of ethnic Albanians on Wednesday marched through this Kosovo town to protest plans to resettle Serbs in the area.

The demonstrators here carried placards with slogans such as “Shed blood has not dried up yet,” “Don’t hurt the wounds of Kosovo” and “Stop Serb colonies in Kosovo.”

Protesters said they would oppose plans by Kosovo Serb leaders and U.S. officials to return Serbs to the area until a host of conditions had been met, including the release of all ethnic Albanian prisoners now held in Serbia proper.

“We say this project should be stopped. Even talks about returning Serbs to Kosovo should be stopped,” said Remzije Zeqiraj, head of the committee that organized the protest.

It is estimated that more than 200,000 Serbs and members of other minorities fled Kosovo during and after the 78-day air campaign waged by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization against Yugoslavia last year, fearing revenge attacks by the ethnic Albanian majority that suffered years of Serbian repression.

Officials have identified an abandoned and ruined Serbian village near Istok--in the northwestern part of Kosovo, a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s dominant republic--as a possible site for a pilot project to return Serbs to Kosovo.

But others, including officials from the United Nations refugee agency, have said that Serbs should not be encouraged to return now because Kosovo is not safe enough.

Protesters at Wednesday’s rally, who appeared to number more than 2,000, said the memories of a conflict that left thousands dead and thousands more missing were still too fresh to even contemplate the return of Serbs to Kosovo.

“We don’t want Serbs to return before all mass graves have been opened in Kosovo,” said 17-year-old Sami Buleshkaj of Istok.