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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

No one can take away Serbia’s right to truth about March pogrom

Belgrade, 17 March 2024

President of the Republic of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic said tonight, at a commemorative event marking the Day of Remembrance of the Pogrom in Kosovo and Metohija of 17 March 2004, that we must not remain silent about what happened then and that no one can take the truth away from us.

Speaking at the event in the National Theatre, attended by Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, ministers, representatives of the Serbian Army, Serbian Orthodox Church, religious communities and the diplomatic corps, as well as members of parliament, families of the victims and others, Vucic said that we did not analyse enough what happened then and what resulted from it.

When 20 years have passed since a crime was committed, without justice for the victims, without punishment for the criminals, the question arises, what do we have left after all? What should we say to the Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija, who experienced a pogrom on 17 March 2004, when ten of them were killed, almost 1,000 injured, 4,000 were permanently expelled from their homes, while their houses were devastated and torn down, and 35 churches and monasteries damaged and destroyed, he stated.

The President pointed out that the pogrom against the Serbs, which took place on 17 March 2004, had only one goal, and that was the independence of the so-called Kosovo.

It was an organised and prepared action, and not any kind of anger or rage of people who saw the injustice that happened to the boys from Cabra, near Zubin Potok.

Vucic said that from 2008 to 2012 and 2013, we lost a lot, because more than half of the world recognised the independence of the so-called Kosovo.

They have never fulfilled anything from the Brussels Agreement. They don't even mention it anymore, now the Ohrid Agreement is being mentioned, from which we fulfilled something, and the authorities in Pristina nothing, Vucic emphasised.

You can carry out whatever actions and threats you want, but we will never accept the results of the pogrom of 17 March 2004, nor the unilateral decision on the so-called independence of Kosovo, the President said and reiterated that Kosovo and Metohija will always be part of sovereign and independent Serbia.