Jeremic Likens Kosovars to 'Hobbit's' Evil Orcs

The Serbian president of the UN General Assembly has suggested on Twitter that the blockbuster movie, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", holds important lessons for who is wrong and right in the issue of Kosovo.

Both the book, and now the film, centre on "the battle of the brave dwarves, determined to reclaim their stolen land from the evil Orcs and powerful dragon Smaug," Jeremic wrote on Tuesday.

Jeremic's words reflect that fact that many Serbs view Kosovo's majority Albanian population as usurpers who stole their nation's "cradle", as they refer to Kosovo.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008, which Serbia bitterly opposes and has vowed never to recognise.

After the tweet provoked numerous comments on Twitter, Jeremic went on to further explain his view of the issue, noting that the land that the dwarves want to reclaim in "The Hobbit" has a lot of gold, just as Kosovo holds the important Trepca mines complex.  

According to Jeremic, when the dragon first toppled the dwarf kingdom, no one was on the side of the dwarves, but after they had showed determination to recover their lost land, the elves and hobbits took their side.

"You have to appreciate yourself in order to be admired," Jeremic wrote.

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" premiered earlier this month, and is first of three epic fantasy adventure films directed by Peter Jackson and based on Tolkien's fantasy novel from 1937.

Jeremic is chairing the UN General Assembly for a year. In July, he said that Kosovo would join the UN "over my dead body". In spite of that, several countries recently recognised Kosovo, bringing the tally up to 97 UN member countries.