The protest was held in the northern, mostly Serb-populated part of the town. Also attending were representatives of political parties from Serbia who tried to convince them to support Serbia's new constitution at an October 28-29 referendum. The draft constitution says that Kosovo is an inalienable part of Serbia.
"We are not passing a new constitution for the constitution itself because the old constitution too says that Kosovo is part of Serbia. We want to tell the whole world that Serbia's citizens think that Kosovo is Serbia's birthplace and that (Serbia) cannot withdraw from Kosovo," said Ivica Dacic of the Socialist Party of Serbia, adding "there is no Serbian hand that will sign Kosovo's independence".
Aleksandar Vucic of the Serbian Radical Party criticised statements that Serbia attached more importance to a future in Europe than to Kosovo.
Kosovo Serb representatives said that although the Serbian side offered Albanians in Kosovo "essential autonomy", they did not want to give up their requests for Kosovo's independence. Serb representatives said they would not accept an imposed solution.