BELGRADE – Assistant Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Bojan Anđelković stated that there is are reasonable grounds to believe that the fire had been plated to the house of the returnee Ružica Ratković in Suvi Lukavac village, near the town of Istok in Kosovo and Metohija, and that this was not the act of a Serb.

"The house is located on the border of the village and since nobody has been living in the house during some time, we have grounds to suspect that the fire was planted and that had not been done by a person of Serbian nationality,” told Anđelković to Beta Agency.

Anđelković stated that Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija strongly condemns the torching of the house of returnees and that he expects urgent and decisive investigation as well as detection and punishment of the perpetrators.

"We expect that the competent institutions in the Province find the perpetrators by a decisive actions and as soon as possible, just as they demonstrated their determination in several other cases, particularly regarding the houses of the returnees,” Anđelković said.

He said that he expects that the damage to the torched house be compensated shortly, as well as that house be renovated in the nearest future.

"We expect significantly more attention to the security of the Serbs and more respect of their human rights, because this is yet another example of the flagrant violations of their human rights, “Anđelković said.

Anđelković, in charge of return in the Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija, sent the message to all displaced persons not to give up the return to Kosovo and Metohija and to insist on respect of their human rights.

"Ministry for Kosovo and Metohija will continue to seek new ways to help people to exercise their rights,“ Anđelković said.

The house of Ružica Ratković in Suvi Lukavac near Istok, is completely torched, and the resident Mihajlo Dubić told the Beta Agency that the fire was set to the house about 1 p.m. and that the entire house went up in flames before the firemen arrived.

He said that nobody was in the house at that moment and there were no injured persons.

Dubić added that the owner of the house was sick and that at the time of the fire she was at her daughter’s place in Novi Sad. There was no electricity in the house, therefore the fire was not caused by the bad installation.

According to him, police and Slovenian troops of KFOR visited the scene of fire.