Petkovic: Bars will not conceal the truth about KLA crimes

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, responded to today’s detention of his deputy, Igor Popovic, in Kosovo following statements made about the KLA during a memorial for Serbian victims in Orahovac, stating that “bars will not conceal the truth about the KLA’s atrocities.”

“Instead of arresting the terrorists who inflicted so much suffering on the Serbian people—the perpetrators of crimes in Orahovac and across Kosovo and Metohija—[Albin] Kurti arrests my colleague, the courageous Igor Popovic, simply because he spoke the truth about the criminal KLA and the suffering of Serbs during the memorial in Orahovac,” Petkovic wrote on the social media platform X.

According to the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petkovic has informed Brussels of Popovic’s detention and has demanded his immediate release, as well as the protection of international missions operating in Kosovo.

Earlier today in Orahovac, Popovic stated that the suffering of Serbs in the municipality remains a living wound that still causes pain.

“It is as if one were trying to deliver a speech on Golgotha in Jerusalem, where Christ suffered. Our brothers were killed because the KLA terrorists did not want Serbs in this area, and by executing them, they sought to intimidate the remaining Serbian population into leaving. What is also painful is that the terrorists—the organizers and perpetrators of these crimes—have not been found or brought to justice all these years. Meanwhile, we see entire parts of Gaza being destroyed over the abduction of Israeli civilians. Despite the presence of various international investigative missions—UNMIK, EULEX, and the Hague Tribunal—no one has been prosecuted or punished. On the contrary, the KLA continues to be labeled a liberation movement and its members as freedom fighters,” Popovic said.