Women stage protest in Kosovska Mitrovica

A protest of women who, as previously announced, wish to voice their discontent and to protect their children, was held in the city of Kosovska Mitrovica, north Kosovo. In addition to the criticism addressed to Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, the protesters also invited the international community to understand Serbs from north Kosovo.

The assembled women marched through the main city street to a stage set up near the main bridge over the Ibar River that divides the city into the Serb-dominated north part and the south part, mostly populated by ethnic Albanians.

The banner at the head of the column read: Mothers of Kosovo Against Kurti’s Ghetto. (Kosmet, short for Kosovo and Metohija, is the official name for what the Serbian authorities consider to be the country’s southern province). Before the speakers addressed the crowd, the song Just Let There Be No War was played.

The women also carried banners saying United Women Free the Ghetto, It’s not a whim, I Want Peace, Kurti, I Won’t Give You My Children, and others.

Gordana Savic, the head of the Mitrovica Health Center health prevention department, addressed "her sisters", as she said. Savic is also a former councilor of the North Mitrovica Municipal Council who resigned this month along with other councilors from the Serb List.

Savic said the women assembled Wednesday to send out a message: We will no longer put up with Kurti’s terror.

She said that many of the women who gathered there have the same goal, “The goal is to ensure peace, freedom, a carefree childhood for our children, so they too can live like all other children of this world. Unfortunately, they are denied this…”

Savic also addressed international community representatives, asking them “to help, to do something, to at least hear what we have to say here today, that our children are no different from their children and from the children in their countries. They have to hear our voice.”

She sent greetings to fellow citizens south of the Ibar River, stressing that they did not divide and that they are all the same.

A teacher, Slavica Radosavljevic, said this day should be remembered as the day when women said Enough to Kurti.

There was noticeable EULEX presence during the protest.