MARCH POGROM ONE OF THE MOST HORRIFIC EVENTS IN MODERN EUROPE

PODGORICA, MARCH 17 /SRNA/ - The March Pogrom is one of the most horrific and most shameful events in modern Europe, which to this day has not received the deserved epilogue, because no one has been held accountable for the killings, the burning of homes, and the destruction of holy sites, the Alliance of Associations of Displaced Persons from Kosovo and Metohija in Podgorica said.

The Alliance emphasized that the lack of reaction from the international community in March 2004 was not accidental, but rather a message that Serbian victims are considered less valuable and that violence against Serbs can go unpunished. "That policy reached its culmination in 2008, when the so-called independence of Kosovo was proclaimed, a project that has not been recognized by the majority of UN member states, but has been recognized by those powers which in 1999 directly produced the tragedy and the expulsion of nearly 300,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians through bombing," the statement said. As they emphasized, this created a dangerous precedent - that crime pays off, ethnic cleansing is rewarded, and justice is applied selectively. It was pointed out that Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija today live under conditions of constant pressure, fear, and uncertainty, where everyday life includes restricted freedom of movement, institutional discrimination, economic isolation, as well as increasingly frequent arrests and court proceedings for alleged, often fabricated, war crimes. "At the same time, crimes against Serbs remain without punishment, without truth, and without justice," the Alliance stated, adding that this is a continuation of the same policy that led to the mass exodus in 1999 and the pogrom in 2004. The Alliance noted that the emigration of Serbs continues, quietly but steadily, while the remaining population is reduced to living in enclaves, isolated, insecure, and deprived of the basic conditions for a dignified life. "We remind that Serbs were victims of systemic crimes and persecution not only in Kosovo and Metohija, but also in Croatia and BiH. Nevertheless, those victims remain marginalized, while the truth is persistently distorted," the Alliance said. They expect the competent institutions in Montenegro to reconsider the decision by the regime of Milo Đukanović to recognize the so-called Kosovo, which, according to publicly stated positions of the former prime minister Duško Marković, was contrary to the will of more than 80 percent of the citizens of Montenegro.