Serbs threaten to "leave institutions" over arrests

Serbs threaten to "leave institutions" over arrests

They called on the international community and EULEX to “have the Serbs who are unjustly accused in detention immediately and unconditionally released pending trial,” or they would be forced to consider termination of cooperation with EULEX.

“If the campaign against the Serbs goes on, their legally elected representatives, mayors, presidents of municipal assemblies and assembly members will rethink their participation in all of Kosovo’s institutions,” the Serb representatives said in a joint message.

The protest’s organizers cited new threats of unfounded arrests of Serbs as the reason for the protest, which they staged under the slogan “We are all the same, who of us is next?”.

A EULEX prosecutor summoned Zubin Potok Mayor Stevan Vulović and former municipal president Slaviša Ristić for questioning, but the Kosovo police failed to hand out the summons to them because they were not at home to receive them.

Speaking at the rally, Leposavić Mayor Dragan Jablanović expressed the belief that the goal behind the announcements of new arrests was intimidation of people in northern Kosovo and stressed that such moves were frustrating efforts aimed at stabilizing the situation.

He urged all concerned parties to restrain themselves, calling on the international community to prevent any steps that could lead to disruption of stability and urged the public to remain in unity.

Milan Ivanović, president of the Serb National Council of Northern Kosovo and director of the Health Center in Kosovska Mitrovica, said that the arrests were targeted at leaders of the Serb institutions, the most prominent people of that region.

“This is not an attempt to arrest Slaviša Ristić, Stevan Vulović or Dragoljub Delibašić. It is an attempt to depict our institutions as criminogenic and genocidal. And if we have genocidal and criminalized institutions, they should be disbanded and destroyed,” Ivanović said, trying to explain the logic behind the arrests.

Ivanović said that the authorities in Pristina were applying the “Croatian model,” by which one part of the Serbs should be intimidated through arrests, and the other part should be assimilated.

Ksenija Božović, president of the North Mitrovica Municipal Assembly, requested that Oliver Ivanović, leader of the Citizens’ Initiative “Freedom, Democracy, Justice,” and other detained Serbs, be released pending trial.

“We want to say to EULEX and the Kosovo police that (we are aware that) a lot of injustice has been done. Let them finally start to work fairly and lawfully, let them stop the orchestrated pressure on the Serbs. We want to remind the international community that it must be status neutral, rather than serve in the interests of the authorities in Pristina,” she said.

The protest rally was attended by representatives of the Srpska list, mayors of municipalities with a Serb majority, and people from Zubin Potok, Kosovoska Mitrovica, Zvečan, Gračanica and Ranilug, who carried a Serbian flag.

The main road in Zubin Potok was blocked during the protest.