The locals in the southern Serbian village of Rastelica, Kursumlija municipality, which is located at the administrative border with Kosovo, claim that they are almost daily faced with tree poachers, ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, who are armed, invade the area and poach timber.
For years there has been information on Albanians from Kosovo crossing over and plundering the property of the people living in the Kursumlija villages. They have even made alternative routes that they take, and they open fire on the police. The locals have repeatedly turned to the relevant authorities for help, but there has been no response, so they decided to stage a protest.
“Albanians from Kosovo invade our village, they cut down a hectare and a half of my beech forest,” Mile Koprivica from Rastelica told N1, adding that the relevant authorities have done nothing to protect them, and that only the police organize some actions, “but they are being shot at.”
He said these people from Kosovo “come in a very organized manner, with tractors, with construction machines they use to build roads, with automatic weapons and security guards who keep watch while they cut down our trees.”
He explained that the administrative border between Kosovo and Serbia proper in the region of the Kursumlija municipality is 110 kilometers long.
“It is a large area, the villages that gravitate towards that administrative line are sparsely populated, there are a few police bases, but no more military ones. The army is supposed to guard the border, it no longer does that. The army used to come until two or three years ago, now the police come if we call them,” added Koprivica.
Asked if he thinks something will change regarding this matter in the near future, he said they have to keep hoping it will, but that their experience tells them otherwise.
“Nothing has changed, they know that and that is why they behave as if all this is theirs,” he said, adding that four kilometers of central Serbia’s territory is no longer controlled by Serbia.
They are now coming closer to the populated villages, they even opened fire on some locals, he said, adding: “That was a warning not to come close, and that they will keep doing what they are doing.”
Koprivica said he spoke with several media with national broadcasting licenses in recent years “and, unfortunately, nothing has changed.”
Source: N1
