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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Remembering immense sacrifices in Kosovo and Metohija as foundation of united Serbia

Belgrade, 17 March 2025

Prime Minister Miloš Vučević assessed tonight that the pogrom against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija that occurred on this day in 2004 represents another contribution to the immense book of suffering that the Serbian people have endured for centuries in the territory of the southern province.

At a ceremony held on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of 17 March 2004 - the Pogrom in Kosovo and Metohija, which was held tonight at the National Theatre in Belgrade, Vučević said that this day should warn and remind us of the victims of the Serbian people, and that this memory should be the foundation on which we will build a united Serbia.

The Prime Minister emphasised that the crisis in Kosovo and Metohija seemed to have never stopped, and escalated in its most severe form in the late 1990s, and especially in 1999.

He recalled that at that time the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia faced more than a thousand of the most modern NATO aircraft, Albanian terrorists in our country and abroad, as well as an open threat of an attack by NATO ground troops on our territory.

According to him, after the Kumanovo Agreement and the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1244, before the eyes of the entire international community, our people in Kosovo and Metohija once again became the target of unprecedented violence.

Vučević stated that the arrival of KFOR was followed by a real exodus of Serbs, Roma, Gorani, Ashkali, as well as others who did not fit into the policy of the criminal so-called KLA, and added that the most powerful military alliance in the history of mankind failed to protect the honour, property and lives of innocent citizens.

The Prime Minister underlined that the liberal media remained silent, free thinkers and human rights organisations remained mute.

Everything was permitted as long as it was directed against the Serbs. The goal was to seize our province and break our national spirit. And to steal, seize, appropriate, precisely what has no price and what is not for sale, the Prime Minister said.

He recalled that in the 21st century, a pogrom was organised in Europe against the civilian population, when armed masses of extremists attacked Serbian enclaves throughout Kosovo and Metohija.

Vučević pointed out that six cities and 10 villages - Priština, Obilić, Kosovo Polje, Lipljan, Gnjilane and Prizren - were ethnically cleansed in 48 hours, and added that eight Serbs were brutally murdered, two more succumbed to injuries, 930 Serb houses were burned to the ground, and 4,012 Serbs were expelled from their centuries-old homes.

The Prime Minister assessed that UNMIK and KFOR had completely failed in protecting the non-Albanian population and private property, and that they had silently watched this crime.

He also noted that 21 years after this crime, the position of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija is still difficult.

Vučević said that the Serbian people in the southern province live in ghettos, under economic isolation, as well as under constant pressure and violence.

Kurti's regime seems to be doing and planning nothing else but to expel or physically destroy the remaining Serbian population. We are witnesses to open daily discrimination and violation of basic human rights, Vučević stated, adding that despite all the hardships, the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija are surviving.

The Prime Minister stated that they are true heroes who, with their struggle, testify every day to the truth that Kosovo and Metohija is and will forever be the heart and soul of Serbia, and assessed that they are representatives of that faith and that dream of a free and strong Serbia, which has sustained us through the centuries.