Around 300 Serbs from northern Kosovska Mitrovica visited the Orthodox cemetery in the southern part of the city early on Saturday, to mark the All Souls' Day, a traditional Christian holiday devoted to the faithfully departed.

Serbs arrived by buses in the company of Kosovo Police Service to the Orthodox cemetery in southern Kosovska Mitrovica, where around 90 per cent of tombstones had been torn down. The Serbs told reporters that the Orthodox holiday is the only chance for them to safely visit the graves of their late friends and family, under police watch.

Zoran Zamfirovic whose family has been living in Kosovska Mitrovica for decades now told Tanjug that it is regrettable to see so many graves desecrated. He said that he can hardly believe that anyone in the world could do such a thing, and added that this is only a part of the tragedies which befell Serbs who decided to stay in Kosovo.

Mitrovica-born Branko Grujic from Kraljevo, central Serbia, said that someone wrote “UCK” (Albanian abbreviation for the name of the Kosovo Liberation Army) on his car using paint spray. However, he said that he will continue visiting the cemetery despite the threats.

KPS regional spokesman Besim Hoti told Tanjug that the police station in southern Kosovska Mitrovica is conducting proceedings into this incident, which is qualified as disruption of public order and peace. Over 500 tombstones were torn down in the southern Kosovska Mitrovica cemetery and not a single Serb was buried there since 1999. All the tombstones in the northern Mitrovica graveyard remain intact.