Calls on protest against Serb-Albanian youths ‘Mirëdita – Dobar dan’ Festival

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Social networks carried calls on protest against ‘Mirëdita – Dobar dan (Good day in Albanian and Serbian) Festival organised by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights aimed at reconciliation of the Albanian and Serb people due on Thursday.

The potential protesters covered the entry of the festival location, the Centre for Cultural Decontamination (CZKD), with posters reading ‘Mirëdita – Laku noc (Good night).’

The ultra-conservative ‘Zavetnici’ movement wrote on their Facebook page their supporters would gather outside the St. Sava Temple and then walk to the CKZD, adding that several other organisations would join them in the protest.

The Festival is organised annually since 2014.

Ivan Djuric, the programme director of the Youth Initiative and one of the Festival’s organisers, said the calls on protest showed the nationalism was growing both in Serbia and Kosovo and that ‘lies have been spreading for years about the Festival’s goals.”

He said that “unfortunately, the police will again have to protect the participants.”