President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic has requested to visit Kosovo accompanied by his Minister of Internal Affairs Aleksandar Vulin, the newly appointed Serbia’s ambassador in the US, Marko Djuric, and the head of a department dealing with Kosovo, Petar Petkovic.
The request comes amid revelations of a mass grave near Raska in Serbia, where bodies of Albanians killed by the Serbian state during the Kosovo war are believed to have been buried by the Serbian military.
Kosovo’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Meliza Haradinaj Stublla did not give the green light to the visit. She considered the request an “insult” agaisnt Albanians at a time when they are faced with the “reopening of the wound” and the “great pain” for the missing persons.
“Every request from Serbia under such circumstances will always have the same answer,” she said in a statement on Saturday.
“Citizens of Kosovo, the families of the missing, killed and massacred by the Serbian police, military and paramilitary forces, rightly ask what will happen after the discovery of the mass grave and reburial? How long will the international justice allow those who commit crimes to conduct investigations and trials?” the minister asked.
Djurić and Vulin were banned multiple times from entering Kosovo.
Djurić was arrested in March 2018 by Kosovo police for illegal entry in this country after he had been refused an entry request.
Vulin was recently criticized for using a pejorative term towards Kosovo Albanians.
While in the office of Minister of Defense, Vulin issued an official statement on October in which he refers to Kosovo Albanians as “Shiptari” which is used as an insult by Serbians against Albanians. The correct Serbian term for Albanians is “Albanac”.
