“Death to Albanians”, a nationalist graffiti against Albanians appears in Serbia

In the Albanian-majority municipality of Bujanovac in Serbia, a nationalist graffiti calling for “Death to Albanians” has appeared. This writing was created following a protest by Albanians in the region against the ongoing discrimination of the Albanian minority by the Serbian state. The graffiti appeared in the health center in Bujanovac.

The chairman of the Albanian National Council, Nevzad Lutfiu, initially denounced the case and called on the Serbian authorities to take action.

In the courtyard of the health center in Bujanovac, citizens saw this graffiti “Death to Albanians” during the day. I call on the law enforcement authorities to find the author and take action,” he wrote.

The Albanian member of the Serbian parliament, Shaip Kamberi, also reacted to this nationalist call and mentioned two Serbian officials who had instigated it.

“Incitement to Albanophobia, according to the statements of the top subordinate of Aleksandar Vucic, Dragan Stevanovic-Bocke, and the Director of the Service of the Coordination Body for Presevo, Bujanoc and Medvedja, Nenad Mitrovic, who rushed to judge yesterday’s protest of Albanians for equal rights and today we are witnessing the first Albanophobic reaction in Bujanovac. The inscription “Smrtsiptarima” (Death to Albanians) has so far been placed in the courtyard of the health center in Bujanovac by unknown persons. By attacking the right of Albanians to protest, to books, to integration, to recognition of diplomas, to end passivization and to economic development, these two state officials have triggered a wave of anti-Albanian reactions, culminating with this inscription in the health facility”.

Kamberi says that Serbia takes no action when it comes to threats and hate speech against Albanians, while this is not the case when Serbs are concerned.

“There is still no reaction from the law enforcement authorities, which is a very different action from a few days ago, when an Albanian commentator on Facebook was arrested “for inciting interethnic hatred” and sentenced to 30 days in prison. Of course, the perpetrators of this Albanophobia, Bocke and Mitrović, remain silent, because in a constitutional state they would be the first to be punished.”

Albanians in Serbia have rebelled against the discrimination inflicted on them by the state on the basis of their ethnicity and have protested for this reason.

In order to reduce the number of Albanians, Serbia is deactivating their addresses, which is seen as ethnic cleansing. There have been reactions to this issue from European Union countries such as Germany.

Kamberi said they protested because the central government in Belgrade refuses to respect their rights and integrate them in a fair and equal way into the state bodies, because it does not recognize their diplomas, passivates them, discriminates against them and narrows the basic space for a normal life, refuses to respect the three agreements signed with the Albanian representatives and mediated by the internationals.

Kamberi also denounced the attempt by Dragan Stevanovic Boske, a high-ranking SNS official, to distort the reason for the protest.

“Dragan Stevanovic Boske, senior SNS official, has stated that the protest in Bujanovac is not about the rights of Albanians, but allegedly about the loss of power in Bujanovac,” he told /TheGeopost/..