Bosnian Serb Marathon Runner & His 900K Protest

Sometimes this "Marthon Runner" stuff can go deep, as in the case of the Bosnian Serb marathon runner who covered more than 900km in less than nine days to take part in a protest yesterday against Kosovo’s declaration of independence. “I wanted to sympathise with you and to inform you about support from Republika Srpska,” Zeljko Blagojevic (there on the right) said after completing the epic journey. Republika Srpska is the Serb-run part of Bosnia, a semi-independent entity with its own president, government, parliament and police force.“This is a way to show that we (Serbs) are one soul, both in Republika Srpska and Kosovo,” he said.Wearing a T-shirt saying “Kosovo is Serbia”, Blagojevic was mobbed by hundreds of anti-independence demonstrators on arrival in the northern Kosovo town of Kosovska Mitrovica.The marathon runner left the Bosnian Serb town of Banja Luka on March 14 and said he had passed through 17 towns before reaching Kosovo, which broke away from Serbia last month.Most Serbs, who consider Kosovo a cradle of their history and culture, are fiercely opposed to the unilateral declaration of independence made on February 17 by the majority ethnic Albanian government in Pristina.More than 30 countries, including the US and most European Union states, have recognised the move, but others including Serbia’s main ally Russia have strongly opposed it.Bosnia was divided into Serb and Muslim-Croat entities after the former Yugoslav republic’s 1992-1995 war.