The Directorate for Cooperation with the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region within the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was allocated a three times larger budget for supporting the Serbs in the region and diaspora, said the director of the Directorate, Arnaud Gouillon.

Gouillon said that the budget was increased at the proposal of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, and that this showed the motherland’s great care for the Serbs in the region and the diaspora, but also the confidence in the Directorate to implement the government’s policy.

Gouillon, who is also the founder of the humanitarian organization Solidarity for Kosovo, says that he helps all vulnerable people in those enclaves without distinction, including deprived Albanian families, but that the fact is that the most vulnerable are Serbs, Gorani and Roma.

– That should be talked about. This does not mean that there are no poor Albanians, but there are no discriminated Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija. While other communities face not only discrimination, but also violence, both legal and physical – said Gouillon.

He assessed that it disturbed the Albanians that he helped the Serbian enclaves in Kosovo and Metohija and that owing to that help, the Serbs stayed on their properties.

– It disturbs them that I speak about the position of the Serbian, Gorani and Roma people in Kosovo, about the humanitarian disaster, the violation of the human rights of the inhabitants of those enclaves, and in a foreign language. That is why they banned my entry – noted Gouillon, who had been banned from entering Kosmet by the Priština authorities in 2018.

He reminded that the Serbs in the Federation of BiH, as well as in the north of Montenegro, were being helped in agriculture, following the model of helping the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, and that he was expecting a meeting with the Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dačić, shortly to present him the plans for future support for Serbs in the region.

Gouillon assessed that anti-Serb propaganda in the Western and French media had dwindled regarding Kosovo and Metohija, but that Albanian propagandists were extremely active in spreading fake news.

He reminded that this Directorate had opened 23 supplementary Serbian language schools, from Malta to Moscow, from the Netherlands to Austria, and that there were also plans to open them in South America and North America.

– Our people in the diaspora have a huge desire to learn the Serbian language, they want their children to know Serbian. This is a condition of their potential return. That is why we have to work to ensure that these children know their language, preserve their identity and culture – emphasized Gouillon.

He stated that more and more Serbian citizens were returning to Serbia from the diaspora, not only because of the coronavirus, but also because of the coming crisis, noting that there was a fear in Europe of the conflict spilling over from Ukraine.

Source: RTRS-SRNA

Photo: Arnaud Gouillon