The head of Presevo municipality, Ragmi Mustafa, told reporters that what happened should not be regarded as an incident "because Albanians in Serbia have the right to use their symbols."
According to media reports, over 2,000 Albanians, mostly primary and secondary school pupils, attended a celebration of an Albanian national holiday in Presevo, carrying a dozen flags of the neighbouring country. After the playing of the Albanian national anthem, a minute of silence was observed in honour of all members of the dissolved Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac who had been killed in fighting against Serbian security forces in the late 1990s.
The Serbian flag was also removed from the town hall in Bujanovac and replaced with the Albanian one.
The head of the Serbian government office in charge of human and minority rights, Petar Ladjevic, said that for now the Albanian minority did not have the right to celebrate their national holidays and display their symbols because they had not yet formed their own national council.