Barricades erected in north Kosovo have been blocking roads for 13 days, and a protest announced by the Belgrade-backed Serb List as the biggest protest ever in north Kosovo was held Thursday at the barricades in the village of Rudare. Milica Andric of the New Social Initiative told N1 that the column of vehicles that brought people to the protest was several kilometres long.

The crowd unfurled a big Serbian flag and people were carrying banners saying ‘(Serbian) President Vucic, we trust in you,’ ‘Because there is no going back from here,’ ‘(Kosovo Prime Minister) Kurti, this is not you fiefdom, this is our heritage,’ ‘With faith in God on Christmas,’ ‘Justice for Dejan, Miljan and Sladjan,’ and many other.

The protest was attended by Serb List representatives both from the north and from the south of the Ibar River.

The Kosovo Police said that the protest ended peacefully and rebutted the allegations that buses from Strpce carrying protesters were prevented from going to the protest rally in Rudare, reported Radio Television of Kosovo (RTK).

The Kosovo Police said that, while performing their legal duty, police officers stopped a bus in a routine control procedure at which time some people on the bus refused to show their IDs and chose not to continue their journey.

The Kosovo Police said it issued a statement prior to the protest saying that everyone has the right to a peaceful protest and that the police are committed to honoring human rights and freedoms, without distinction of any kind.

According to estimates on the ground, some 1,500 people attended the protest which ended peacefully, without any incidents reported.

The rally started with a speech by Predrag Pantic, the son of arrested former Kosovo police officer Dejan Pantic, who thanked the people who have been maintaining the barricades for 13 days which, he noted, were erected following his father’s arrest.

That arrest, he said, was not the only reason why barricades were put up, but only the last straw in a series of unilateral actions, arrests and harassment of Serbs. “It has been difficult here for people for years. Every time we thought it couldn’t get more difficult, they surprised us,” said Pantic.

He said his father was found guilty as soon as he was arrested and that people in Kosovo’s institutions, who are neither judges nor prosecutors, call him a terrorist and a criminal.

“They know he is guilty because all this is their doing. My father is guilty just because he is a Serb,” said Pantic, adding that people have recognized themselves in his father and that the very same thing could happen to any one of them.

Pantic asked the international community and Europe why they are silent and called on them to react.

The protesters were also addressed by the former mayor of Zvecan Dragisa Milovic and other Kosovo Serbs.