Serbs gather at protest rally in northern Kosovska Mitrovica

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Kosovo-Metohija Serbs gathered at a mass protest rally in northern Kosovska Mitrovica on Monday to call on the international community to ban Pristina's unilateral decision to abolish the Serbian dinar and point out that Serbs in the province were disenfranchised and deprived of the basic living conditions.

Dragisa Milovic, a doctor from the Kosovska Mitrovica clinical hospital, said the ban on the dinar was directly aimed against the Serbs and threatened their survival.

"It is aimed at abolishing Serbian institutions. It is also aimed against minority communities that live here. All this is happening in front of the eyes of the international community. Twenty-five years on, this is an opportunity to tell the world and Europe that we, Serbs, are second-class citizens, that our fundamental human rights are being trampled underfoot and that we are under threat of an exodus. This insane decision will hit the most vulnerable - the elderly, the sick, pensioners, the underprivileged, students, as well as health care workers. The question has arisen of how we will be supplying hospitals with medicines and buying food for patients," Milovic said, noting that his hospital was providing treatments to Serbs, Bosniaks and Roma.

He urged ambassadors of Quint states to ban Pristina's decision and noted that, under Brussels agreements from 2013 and 2015, Serbia had the right to provide funding to its citizens in Kosovo-Metohija.