Large rally in support of arrested Serbs in Gracanica: The Serbian people will choose the right side

A large number of citizens gathered today in front of the police station in Gracanica for a rally in support of the arrested Serbs, directors of educational and healthcare institutions.

The protest was attended by employees of hospitals, healthcare centers, and schools, as well as citizens who emphasized that they wanted to demonstrate unity in this way.

“It has never been harder, but it has never been more beautiful to be a Serb in Kosovo. The Serbian people will choose the right side,” said Dusan Cirkovic from Dobrotin.

Milos Rasic from Dobrotin stressed that Serbs are determined to survive, but are facing major pressure.

“I came to support my Serbian people, who for centuries have struggled and fought to survive and remain on these ancestral hearths. We are enduring various pressures and injustice from Albin Kurti and others. We are what we are — persistent — and we want to stay and survive on our ancestral lands, regardless of everything they did to us and continue to do today. But this truly goes beyond all limits, when someone is denied existence and the right to life. We Serbs are indeed a heavenly people, we truly are, but for someone to terrorize and abuse us in this way, to arrest us, throw us into their dungeons, and deny us freedom of speech and rights,” Rasic said.

Ljubisa Nedeljkovic called on the Republic of Serbia to stop what he described as terror against Serbs in Kosovo.

“I see no reason why they are behaving so arrogantly toward our people. The fact that we gathered in such large numbers is proof that we want to support our directors in education and healthcare, because we believe we have been wronged. I appeal to the Republic of Serbia to do everything in its power to stop this terror against Serbs,” Nedeljkovic said.

Representatives of local self-government institutions also attended the protest.

Earlier today, protests were held in front of the “Braca Aksic” school in Lipljan and in front of the healthcare center in Gracanica.

Kosovo’s Interior Minister Xhelal Sveçla stated last night that seven people had been arrested in Gracanica who, according to him, “attempted through threats, pressure, and blackmail to influence the free will of voters.”

The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, said that the detention of directors of healthcare and educational institutions of the Republic of Serbia from central Kosovo, allegedly on the orders of Albin Kurti, was an attempt by Pristina to exert impermissible pressure and intimidate Serbian voters in the area in order, as he stated, for Kurti to “push through his favorite, Nenad Rasic, in the upcoming elections.”

The arrests were condemned by Serb List, while SL Presidency member Igor Simic stated that the operation was aimed at intimidating Serbs, and that Rasic, by targeting honorable Serbian men and women, had “enabled and brought Kurti’s police” into Serbian educational and healthcare institutions.