Rakocevic: Not only Dragisa was arrested, but also 700 years of history; Prentic Miric: We haven't had the rights for a long time, this has to stop

Journalist and writer Zivojin Rakocevic said today at a protest rally in front of the Police Station in Gracanica due to yesterday's arrest of Dragisa Milenkovic, that the Serbs were asking the question of who was next on the arrest list. He said that not only Dragisa had been arrested yesterday, but the whole of Gracanica and 700 years of history.

"The basic question we asked ourselves and others yesterday was "Who's next". How to live in a society where you wonder who's next to be arrested? We need to live in freedom. We've been driven out of the cities; we've been pushed into ghettos to which today they come as a punitive expedition to arrest people. Dragisa Milenkovic is only one of the eight who lie in prisons. These people are mostly political prisoners, they have not done anything wrong to anyone," Rakocevic said.

As he added, despite the violation of all rights and the silence of the international community, they believed that freedom for the Serbs would come one day.

"We must understand that the international community urgently needs to protect our ghettos. KFOR soldiers must provide us with security because all the evil that we have been suffering for twenty or more years is now spilling over to the north. But there is something more important than all this. Are we desperate, or people who are looking for freedom and have no chance? We are not. It was not only Dragisa who was arrested yesterday, Gracanica was arrested, and 700 years of history, freedom, democracy, and our right to life. We know that this will bring freedom and that's why we will not surrender. It is fundamentally important that we say from here - Despite the arrests, despite everything, do not sell your properties," Rakocevic said.

He pointed out that the Serbs were weak, but that, throughout history, even great empires have had problems with the weak.

"Perfect European laws are prescribed here that no one respects. We must know that after 25 years of living with minimum human rights, we deserve the best doctors, professors, and hospitals. Freedom will come to those who pray for it, to the Milenkovic family, and to the innocents who suffer unjustly. We are and will be winners, because we are weak, and powerful empires have had problems with the weak," Rakocevic concluded.

At today's gathering, thousands of residents of Gracanica supported the arrested 51-year-old Milenkovic and his family, demanding justice for all those arrested, as well as an end to the criminalization of the Serbs.

Director of the Pristina Health Center based in Gracanica, Natasa Prentiv Miriv, said at the meeting that the international community had not fulfilled its primary duty for 23 years, but that the Serbs were already used to it and no longer trusted it. She added that when it came to arresting the Serbs, everything happened according to the same principle, only the names were different.

"Our sufferings are epic and biblical; everyone says that the same thing has been happening for 23 years. They are wrong, this has been going on for much longer, and only for 23 years has the international community had a legal, political, and moral responsibility for our security. And here, in front of our and the eyes of the whole world, that same international community is sinking more and more into the sands of shame and shame, because by its inaction it allows terror over our people. Our people have long had no expectations from them, nor from Pristina, we have long known what they think and show. Every Serb can be Dragisa Milenkovic. Everything is the same, the same system, only the names change, and it's always a Serb who is determined to survive on his centuries-old hearth," Miric said.

She emphasized that Serbs did not have a hundred lives, but only one, which they wanted to spend in peace and freedom, because they deserved it.

"There are mixed feelings of sadness and anger, but we are not afraid. We all know that this is the goal. It is high time for the international community and all their institutions and organizations to admit to themselves and the whole world what is happening, and to do something. We are fed up with everything, enough is enough we have listened to their promises and guarantees, with which they have been trying for two decades to cover up the misery and suffering that is served to us every day. We have been brought to a situation where we have to fight for our lives and survival, which is now clear to everyone. We have had no rights for a long time if we ever had them; they are just a letter on paper. This must stop; our countrymen must be set free. Everything else is a farce and a game with our lives, and we don't have a hundred lives, but only this one that we want to live in freedom because that's the only way we can do it," Miric concluded.

Today's meeting ended with a protest walk to the Gracanica monastery, and a new one is scheduled for tomorrow at noon.

Special Police vehicles of the Kosovo Police were parked next to the Police Station during the protest, and KFOR members, carabinieri, and EULEX police officers were also present.

Today's protest was peaceful, unlike yesterday's, when citizens blocked the road due to the police's ban on organizing a peaceful protest, after which there were minor clashes between the Serbs and members of the police, and one person was injured when a car which despite the roadblock passed through the crowd and bumped into her.

Dragisa Milenkovic (51) was arrested yesterday by special units of the Kosovo Police on suspicion of having committed an alleged war crime, that is, as a worker in a prison in Lipljan, he "mistreated detained Albanians".