Exploitation of pain: How regime media use Serbs from Kosovo for political purposes

A disgusting exploitation of despair and pain. This is the shortest possible description of the latest abuse of Kosovo Serbs, who, according to pro-regime media reports, marched to Belgrade to support Aleksandar Vučić. The group arrived and stood on the other side of the fence, a barrier erected in front of the pain of a mother, a woman who asks for nothing – except justice.

The group is presented in the same media, which dominates all national frequencies and the press, and through an army of bots on social networks, as the final will of all Kosovo Serbs.

For a thousand and one reasons, one would expect the Serbs from Kosovo to stand by her side. Who else but they themselves would understand her suffering through their own suffering?

However, with the march that ended with a reception in front of the Serbian parliament, the pro-regime manipulated supreme victim of the Kosovo Serbs, about whom the same media report only from the perspective of martyrdom, has taken on a new dimension. She is brutally contrasted with the sacrifice of the mother. “Did they really have to?” asked a woman standing on the other side of the police barricade in front of the Serbian parliament, in contrast to the songs, speeches, and celebrations with which they “welcomed the Serbs from Kosovo.”

Do you recall how it all began? That Serbs in Kosovo only symbolically voted in the 2013 elections, that Serbian police officers broke open ballot boxes, thereby lending legitimacy to these elections. Then criminals started ‘taking care’ of who would be paid and how much, who would work, who would win the tenders. They killed Oliver Ivanović, and before that his godfather Dimitrija Janićijević,” wonders Milivoje Mihajlović, a long-time BBC journalist and former director of Radio Belgrade, concluding:

“So fear is destroying them. Although I don’t understand them. Now they should be free of fear. But they found this group of mercenaries, among whom are those who got money, poor people who got promises and were frightened and told – you have to, because they will burn your cars. And they are a symbol of everything bad. First, there is amnesty for treason.”

The abuse of Serbs from Kosovo in times of crisis by the authorities in Belgrade is nothing new. For example, when Slobodan Milošević lost the elections on September 24, 2000, the first news item on RTS’s Dnevnik was that the SPS had received the most votes in the village of Svinjare near Mitrovica.

Today, while the government talks about them and the pro-regime media reports on them, they are being placed into conscious and implicit stereotypes, effectively discriminating against them.

“Even today, bringing Serbs from Kosovo is a project. Pro-regime media is making a photo robot of Serbs from Kosovo – either Sima Spasić or Milan Radoičić, consciously distorting the character of these people: that they are uneducated, stupid, illiterate, all with the aim of disgust for Serbs in Serbia and in the end saying “if they need it, when are they like that”. Every now and then there are headlines – “Storm is getting ready” and “I will not allow Storm”, so that one man can say – “I prevented Storm”. Serbs from Kosovo are silent, the University of Mitrovica is silent. A group of kids are rebelling, but they are obviously not a threat.”, adds Mihajlović, rounding off: “Vučić has a project to control the levels of hatred and that is how he rules. With fear and hatred. And that is how the pro-regime media works.”

They also exploit us, Serbs from Croatia, says Milka Ljubičić, a long-time editor and journalist:

“When they need us, they take off their hats and pretend to care about our problems. At the same time, they call our children, who go to protests and demand elections, Ustaše.”

“Unfortunately, every story is fabricated in advance to hide the truth that does not suit the centers of power,” emphasizes Darko Dimitrijević, editor-in-chief of Radio Goraždevac.

“At this moment, someone actually likes to hear in the media how Serbs from Kosovo are sacrificing themselves for someone, even though this is a generalization produced by the masters of spin. So today we have the illusion that it is the Serbs, rather than the sympathizers of the Serbian List and the SNS, who are going out and supporting the government. In this context, Serbs are being misrepresented, because not all of them support the government,” says Dimitrijević, concluding:

“On the other hand, we have the pain of a mother, and this pain is marginalized in various ways, but this pain has only one message: that justice be done.”

Regardless of how the pro-regime media portrayed and depicted the arrival of Serbs from Kosovo in front of the Serbian Assembly, the group was actually small. Most people will understand very well how disgusting it is to trade in despair and pain./Radio Goraždevac/