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Serbia: Decision on KFOR withdrawal from Orahovac should be reconsidered

Belgrade, Dec 27, 2006 - President of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija Sanda Raskovic-Ivic today asked that KFOR commander Roland Kather reconsider the decision on withdrawal of KFOR forces from Orahovac and warned that such a decision could have the gravest possible consequences.

Raskovic-Ivic said in a letter that the decision to leave the population of Orahovac without military protection in very hostile surroundings may result in the gravest consequences.

She expressed expectation that KFOR commander will reconsider this decision and return the military unit to the position it held for the past seven years, thanks to which Serb and Roma population survived there.

Raskovic-Ivic stressed that the departure of KFOR soldiers upset not only the few citizens of Orahovac but the whole Serb community.

Safety of non-Albanian population has not only remained unimproved, but has become more difficult, which is responsibility of KFOR forces, and you are their commander, said Raskovic-Ivic in her letter.

The President of the Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija reminded Kather that he is witness to ethnically motivated assaults against members of the Serb community every day, noting that only in the previous three months there were 75 assaults on Serb and non-Albanian citizens living in Kosovo-Metohija.