Teacher from Niš punished for covering up graffiti "When the army returns to Kosovo"

Twenty-five euros – this is the fine that the opposition activist and teacher paid, after he "without permission" covered up the graffiti "When the army returns to Kosovo" located in the courtyard of an elementary school in southeastern Serbia, where he is employed.

The ruling party in Serbia, the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), condemned the action and described the Green Left Front (ZLF) activists from Niš, who participated in the graffiti removal, as "auto-chauvinists."

The nationalist slogan "When the army returns to Kosovo" has been written all over Serbia, while civil society activists have removed these slogans in previous years, arguing that such a message spreads intolerance and incites conflict.

The Serbian army and police withdrew from Kosovo in the summer of 1999, following NATO intervention, which was undertaken due to war crimes that Serbian forces had committed against Albanian civilians during the war.

Anonymous report

"This graffiti calls for war and conflict. This message takes us back to the 90s, a time when Serbia was losing young lives and territories," Dejan Petrovic, 54, a teacher at the Uçitel Tasa school in Niš, told Radio Free Europe (RFE/RL).

Petrovic adds that the graffiti in question was written in the schoolyard several years ago and that he has, on several occasions, suggested to the school principal that such a message is inappropriate and should be removed, but the responsible authorities have not reacted.

“At one point I told the director that, if she is unable to find a way to do this, I would do it myself at my own expense. She did not stop me, but just kept quiet. I understood this as a sign of approval,” says Petrovic.

Together with his colleague Rastislav Dinić from the Green Left Front, to which he belongs, Dejan Petrović last weekend painted the wall where the graffiti was written white.

A few days later, municipal police officers came to the school and told him to go to the police station in Niš, where a criminal report would be filed.

"They told me that the person who had filed the report was an anonymous citizen who had reported that I had painted without the director's approval," he says.

Radio Free Europe attempted to contact the principal of the "Uçitel Tasa" Primary School, Radmilla Krstic, but she was not available for conversation and did not respond to SMS messages sent to her.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty has also asked the Niš municipal police how many criminal charges for the same act were filed during 2025, as well as whether the graffiti "When the army returns to Kosovo" is treated as spreading hatred, discrimination and a call for conflict, but until the publication of this text, this institution has not responded.

Municipal services of local governments in Serbia are responsible for removing graffiti from public spaces, while the owners of private buildings are responsible for removing graffiti from their facades.

What do they say from the ruling party in Serbia?

The Serbian Progressive Party has condemned the actions of activists from Niš, from the Green Left Front.

The leader of the ruling party and former Prime Minister Miloš Vučević said that this is a "scandalous" act by people who "compete in auto-chauvinism."

"They hate everything Serbian, they hate our army and Kosovo and Metohija," Vucevic said in a video message published on X.

Serbian police and the Yugoslav army withdrew from Kosovo in the summer of 1999 after the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement, thus ending the war and NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia.

Nine years later, Kosovo declared independence, which official Belgrade does not recognize.

Before the International Court in The Hague, senior Serbian officials have been convicted of war crimes against Albanians in Kosovo.

Has the Law on Education in Serbia been violated?

Regarding the case of removing graffiti from the schoolyard, the SNS Committee in Niš has spoken out, accusing the Green Left Front of violating the Law on the Foundations of the Educational System, which prohibits political party activity in educational institutions.

"I call on the authorities to react to this violation of the law, and I am also calling on their working organizations to react, because it is unacceptable for teachers and education workers to participate in a political party action," stressed the head of the SNS municipal councilors' group in Niš, Uroš Radullović.

Teacher Dejan Petrovic denies breaking the law and emphasizes that the SNS is trying to intimidate anyone who might dare to do the same.

"We were in the schoolyard, but during the weekend, when there were no students and no classes were taking place. We did something that benefits not only the children, but the entire school community," says Petrovic.

"State project"

Graffiti titled "When the Army Returns to Kosovo" appeared across Serbia in early 2023. The message, featuring military symbols, was written by unknown men for several days on public and private facades, as well as on retaining walls along highways.

It is a line from a reworking of a Serbian folk song. As anthropologist Ivan Čolović has noted, the line “when the army returns to Kosovo” does not exist in the original form of the song to which those who write this slogan refer. It first appears in 2011 in the book “Kosovo is the head of Lazarus” by the Metropolitan of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Amfilohij Radović.

The murals are not signed, but a portal, which is presented as an unofficial information portal for Red Star fans, states that this line has been painted in many places in Belgrade.

"This is a state project. Such slogans can be found not only here in Niš, but also in other cities in Serbia, on highways, in many public places," says Dejan Petrovic.

Actions against activists

Painting murals in residential buildings requires the approval of the residents living there, and if the object is protected, permission from the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments of Serbia is required.

Activists from several civil society organizations, including the association KROKODIL, covered up one of these murals in Belgrade's Slavia Square in February 2023. Before they could finish the action, municipal police arrived at the scene and issued fines to the activists.

Soon, a mural with the same message appeared in the same place.

"If you dare to remove the mural that says 'When the army returns to Kosovo', illegally placed in a public space, it is guaranteed that there will be a reaction from the authorities if they catch you, and also from a number of citizens who react very aggressively. When that mural is returned, it happens in broad daylight, in front of the eyes of the police and passersby," says Vladimir Arsenijevic from the KROKODIL association to REL.

The Belgrade Minor Offences Court has issued several acquittals for activists against whom the municipal police had initiated proceedings over the mural in Slavija. In two separate rulings from July and November 2024, the court found that it had not been proven that the defendants had committed a crime.

Vladimir Arsenijevic says that these decisions should serve as encouragement not only for activists, but for all citizens.

"If an illegally placed graffiti, with any content, appears on the facade of a building, citizens have not only the right, but also the obligation to remove it. This is what we try to convey to citizens – there is no service that will come and remove it. We have to do this ourselves," he says.

In addition to graffiti calling for the return of the army to Kosovo, murals glorifying convicted war criminal Ratko Mladic can also be seen in public spaces in Serbia.

One of the most famous appeared on Njegosheva Street in Belgrade in late July 2021, a month after the former commander of the Army of Republika Srpska was sentenced to life imprisonment in The Hague for war crimes during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

All efforts by citizens and activists to remove it were unsuccessful, because unknown perpetrators, suspected of being part of right-wing groups and fans, restored it to its original state within a few hours.

After being covered up by activists in May 2023, the mural has not been "altered" any more.

The non-governmental organization Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR Serbia) in the same year filed over 300 complaints with municipal services in ten cities and municipalities in Serbia, demanding the removal of murals and graffiti glorifying Mladic.