Profile: Djordje Martinovic

A severely injured Kosovar Serb farmer named Djordje Martinovic says Kosovar Albanians sodomized him with a broken beer bottle, as part of Albanian attempts to force non-Albanians to leave Kosovo. Some Albanian sources claim Martinovic is gay and that his severe injuries are self-inflicted. The government of Kosovo tries to minimize the effects, but Martinovic’s case will be sensationalized in the Yugoslav media. It becomes an important case for Serbs who see Serbia as oppressed; a January 1986 Serb petition will say, “The case of Djordje Martinovic has become that of the whole Serb nation in Kosovo.” [Kola, 2003, pp. 174]