KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Yesterday, in the presence of the regional UN administrator Martin Garrod, parents, about a hundred Albanian children, and ethnic Serb and Albanian employees, a kindergarten was opened in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Although UNMiK announced that Serb and Albanian children aged between 1 and 7 will use this institution together, this seems unlikely. Serbs refuse to take their children to the southern part of the city, occupied by Albanians. Consequently, this will be a mono-ethnic kindergarten. At the opening of the kindergarten, a four-year-old was dressed in a KLA uniform.
Ethnic Serb employees, who wish to work in the newly opened kindergarten were given a by now "traditional" Kosmet welcome: they were greeted by a group of Albanians who threatened to slit their throats.
"In spite of our good will, suitable conditions for work haven't been provided. Albanian colleagues are not showing even a minimal will to work together with us, and the threats to which we are exposed during our stay in the southern part of the city are serious," says Olga Draskovic, a kindergarten teacher.
"We proposed to work in the building 'Neven' in the northern part of the city and that all children living in that part of Mitrovica, irrespective of their ethnicity, be accommodated there. However, UNMiK representatives rejected our proposal, and Serb parents, for understandable reasons do not want to send their children to the southern part of the city, "said Jelena Antic, until recently the director of this institution.