Selakovic: An attempt to rewrite history and equate victim and perpetrator

Minister for Labor, Employment, Veterans, and Social Affairs in the Government of Serbia, Nikola Selakovic, commented on the relocation of the memorial plaque to the fallen Serbian soldiers in Pristina in a statement to Kosovo Online, emphasizing that it was a new attempt to rewrite history in this region.

Selakovic pointed out that everything had happened at the Serbian Orthodox cemetery where the tomb and other Serbian heroes who did not have a monument in a park or some other public place were located.

"It is a Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Pristina, where the tomb of Serbian heroes who perished in the Balkan Wars and World War I is located. They are buried there, and no memorial plaque was placed for them on a building, street, or in a park. It was placed where they are buried, so it is a burial place of Serbian soldiers", Selakovic said.

He adds that he was struck by the fact that this was done by some foreign diplomatic representatives accredited in Pristina.

"Once again, it is evident that the so-called Kosovo is not a state but exclusively a puppet creation in the hands of those sponsors who bombed our country almost 25 years ago to seize what is most valuable and important to our people. Today, those who did it in 1999 are trying to rewrite history. They are moving the gravestones of Serbian soldiers to place various other memorial plaques at the burial site of Serbian soldiers, equating victim and perpetrator in the same place and gathering on the occasion of the Armistice Day, where those who reconciled and made peace then unite today to remove the gravestones and place other monuments. This should not surprise us, as surprising and shocking as it may be; it should only remind us of who took away Kosovo and Metohija from us, who is trying to rewrite history in those areas, and what they are willing to do. What is interesting this time is that the foreigners involved in this openly talk about it", the Minister emphasized.

He pointed out that this was a logical continuation of everything that had happened earlier, whether in 1999 or during the March Pogrom in 2004.

"I cannot forget that footage of the unbridled conduct and rampage by KFOR soldiers at the monument to Milos Obilic in Obilic, which is fortunately now in Gracanica. So, this is a logical continuation of what they have been doing so far, only now they have moved on to the dead Serbs who bother them simply because they are Serbs, and they are bothered by their gravestone. The Serbs will remember all of this well. They will not forget, and I am convinced that there will come a moment when we can return the monument to our soldiers at the Serbian Orthodox cemetery in Pristina to where it was, where it belongs to stand and exist, and that the Serbs are not, as one of our writers recently put it well, Mayas, Incas, or Aztecs in Kosovo and Metohija—an extinct people—so that they treat our heritage in such a way. It wouldn't surprise me if some of them, according to their old habit, steal and seize certain artifacts of great value to our people and our culture and take them to museums in their capitals", Selakovic said.

As he concluded, all of this should strengthen people's belief that they should fight for Kosovo and Metohija every day.

"To be dedicated to it with our thoughts and actions every day, to believe in our state and its leadership, headed by President Vucic, to show the highest possible level of unity in this struggle because only when we are united are we strong enough to push through each of these battles and bring good to both Serb men and women in Kosovo and Metohija and to our Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as to our spiritual, cultural, and material heritage", the Minister emphasized.