Incident and torches at the “Mirdita, good day” festival

The “Mirdita, good morning” festival opened in Belgrade tonight at 6pm, promoting contemporary Kosovo culture. Police blocked intersections near the Cultural Decontamination Center, preventing right-wing groups from approaching. The Kosovo participants were escorted by the police. The police took away a person who interrupted the introductory speech at the opening of the festival.

Fans also protested in front of CZKD, as reported by the Nova.rs portal. A group of right-wingers lit torches in front of the police cordon several times and chanted “Kosovo” and waved flags, and the assembled dispersed around 8 pm

“Without the cooperation and dialogue of the people of Belgrade and Pristina, we remain in a whirlwind of hatred and nationalism,” is the message that opened the festival.

Fiona Jelici, representative of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights, said at the opening ceremony at the Cultural Decontamination Center that young people had the burden of reconciling what previous generations had fought and that Mirdita was just a way to “get closer to society “. goal, “reports Nova.

“We want to be the ones to send a message of peace to the world, sitting at the same table with the young people of Kosovo and exchanging opinions and culture with them.” The mission of the festival has always been to bring together people from Belgrade and Pristina, and in an era of closed borders and social distance, we remain a meeting place for artists and journalists, “he said.

Reacting to protests by certain right-wing groups on the occasion of the festival, Jelici noted that, as a young man, he regrets having to see protests against a cultural event that promotes peace, the exchange of opinions and cooperation.

Kustrim Kolići, Kosovo’s Integra representative, said that “it is absurd how much we don’t know about each other” and that the festival is one of the ways in which the people of Kosovo and Serbia meet, socialize and reconcile, writes Nova.

Maja Stojanović, executive director of the Civic Initiative, pointed out that there is no dialogue between Serbia and Kosovo at the table in Brussels, but only at the Merdita festival, where all the most important issues for both nations are open.

“Only this festival talks about missing people, war crimes and cultural heritage and Decani, and there is no such communication between those in power. That is not heard in the general public, and that is why there are right-wing groups that are protesting because they do not listen to the real message of the festival, ”said Stojanović.

Milan Antonijevic, Executive Director of the Open Society Foundation, also spoke at the opening of the “Mirdita – Good Day” festival. He said that the real message of the festival is reconciliation between Serbia and Kosovo, and not what is on the other side of the cordon, because that is not a mirror of Serbian society.

As previously reported by the Nova.rs portal, a man came on stage and said: “Please take me back to my house, I’m scared here.” He was then removed from the stage for safety.

The Beta agency reported that the police took the person who interrupted the presentation speech at the opening of the festival. As the Youth Initiative for Human Rights told the agency, that person yelled “Take me back to Kosovo” and pushed the microphone away as the organizers addressed them.

Miša Vacić, the leader of the Serbian right, said that he did not care about the festival program, but about the festival itself, because, as Vacić claims, it promotes anti-Serbism.

“The Mirdita Festival is a promotion of terrorism and we are protesting against it in a peaceful way,” Vacic said.

A torch was thrown on the police cordon.

Those gathered, of which there are about three hundred, belong to the right-wing organization Zavetnici, and among them is the leader of the organization, Milica Đurđević. He asked the police to allow them to come closer and convey their message.

“We ask the Albanian community to present their customs and we will welcome them, but we are against Albanian extremists talking about the Serbs being a genocidal people.” We wanted to go in and discuss peacefully with them, to ask them about the cultural heritage of the Serbs in Kosovo. We condemn that the police did not let us go, ”he said.

The patrons first gathered in front of the Temple of San Sava, from where they went to the Cultural Decontamination Center.

Right-wing groups and Zavetnici, who oppose the holding of this demonstration, announced their arrival through social networks.

Previously, calls for protests against the “Mirdita, good day” festival appeared on social media, and the entrance to the Cultural Decontamination Center, where the festival takes place, was covered with posters and the message “Mirdita, good night.”

The Youth Initiative for Human Rights, which is also one of the organizers of the “Mirdita, good day” festival, points out that the festival’s message is to spread peace and reconciliation between Serbian and Kosovar society, and not violence, hatred and separation.

The three-day festival “Mirdita, good morning” is dedicated to the presentation of Kosovo artists in Belgrade and is scheduled to last until October 24 at the Cultural Decontamination Center and “Engio” gallery.

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