Serbia's State Secretary for Kosovo Oliver Ivanovic visited Monday Serb refugees who have returned to two villages in northeastern Kosovo, and he stated that the goal of the ethnic Albanian protests there is to intimidate the Serbs who are returning to their homes.

Ivanovic said that the ethnic Albanians have no argument against the Serbs returning apart form "the fear that they will not be able to use the Serbs' land any longer."

"It is obvious that the intention is to intimidate and discourage refugees from returning and make them go back to camps in central Serbia. It seems that the ethnic Albanians who have been exploiting someone else's land for 10-11 years without any compensation are now worried," Ivanovic told Tanjug.

Ivanovic said that the returned a determined to stay, adding that the only goal of his visit to Dragoljevac and Zac, the two villages, was to encourage them to do so, because the protests are simply initial problems that will not last long.

He said that the next protest is scheduled to happen in 15 days, adding that KFOR and the Kosovo police have reacted very professionally so far and prevented any potential incidents. Ivanovic pointed out that it is very important to help the returned Serbs with food, house reconstruction and planting resources during the current stage.

"Those people need all the help they can get, particularly from the Serbian government, but also from international sources. Right now, the Kosovo government is also being very helpful; it is providing considerable funds to make their return permanent," said Ivanovic.

A total of 26 Serb families returned to Zac at the end of March at their own initiative. They have been placed in UNHCR tents until their old homes are rebuilt or new ones are constructed in their place. The ethnic Albanians who are protesting the return say that there are some among those Serbs who took part in killings and forced relocation of ethnic Albanians from that and the neighboring villages during the war in Kosovo, which the Serb returnees deny, saying that there are no war or any other kind of criminals among them. Several days before the return to Zac, 18 families returned to Dragoljevac.