“We are hostages of Vucic’s policy”: Serbs from northern Kosovo have scheduled a protest, revolted over the Serbian List

On the third day of Orthodox Christmas, 9 January, a protest is planned in the northern part of Mitrovica by Serbs dissatisfied with the Kosovo policy of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, whose organiser, Ivan Miletic, tells Danas that the Serbs of Kosovo are “hostages”.

The protest is scheduled for 12.00 at the monument to Tsar Lazar in the centre of the northern part of  Mitrovica.

Asked who the organisers of the protest are, Miletić replied – “dissatisfied people from the north of Kosovo”.

He says that when the barricades were removed, the citizens saw which way the situation was going and agreed that they would not accept “either Kurti’s or Vucic’s games”.

He points out that formal organisations have not joined them and that they do not know how many people will turn out given, as he says, the fear among the citizens.

Nebojša Jović, Commissioner of the Movement for the Defence of Kosovo, invited citizens to the same protest on the SRBIN.info YouTube channel.

We have tried to organise some protests in favour of citizens before, but it was unsuccessful because people were asked at the last minute not to come because the protests did not have the support of the authorities. But we hope that people will free themselves after this last situation in which we were all manipulated, says Miletić.

Our interlocutor says that although citizens previously doubted “the sincere intentions of Vucic and part of the Serbian List”, for the first time they believed that there would be a “common resistance” and that “Vucic will not sell them out to Kurti”.

He explains that, in his opinion, there are many people in the Serbian List who cannot change anything, but who are part of the party.

There was a great unity. Even I, who have never believed in Vucic, believed this time that he would really speak out on the slogan ‘No going back’. We expected him to take the side of the people, that is to say, the people who live in the whole of Kosovo. Now the situation was with the north, but all the people want to live in safety. We believed that Vucic could negotiate a safer life, but with every bad negotiation and tension, we live harder and worse. I do not know why there are even agreements and negotiations if nothing is achieved and only the Albanians gain from these negotiations – they have been given everything possible, says Miletić.

This Mitrovica resident, who notes that he has never been a member of any organisation, says that last week, at a meeting of Serbs from the north of Kosovo with President Vucic in Raška, after which the removal of the barricades was announced, he said that Vucic was the only “de facto culprit Vučić”.

We are hostages to Vucic’s policies. I have heard from several quarters that there was a great deal of discontent at that meeting, that afterwards everyone ‘broke down’. People are quite upset about Vucic’s address to the honest policeman Filipović. And he only told him our problems that would arise after the barricades were removed, as a form of resistance, which we believed would be the case, says Miletić.

He says that not a single Kosovo Special Forces vehicle has left the north of Kosovo, which was one of the demands after the barricades were removed.

The meeting was also told internally that there would be no provocations from Albanians. But this is also not true, as the provocations continued, Miletić adds.

The provocations, he points out, are the arrival of the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, and the Minister of the Interior, Xhelal Svecla, to the New Year celebrations in Jarinje with KP members.

Vucic’s story that an agreement was reached is best undermined by last night’s incident when a car was stoned and shot at at Tri soliter while being driven by a former Serbian policeman. The attack was ethnically motivated and today our colleague, a teacher of sports education, was detained for more than two or three hours at Jarinje. The repression of Kurti continues, it will not stop. It happened with the barricades because they did not know how we would react. Any concessions from Serbia are detrimental to us, Miletić is categorical.

The case our interlocutor is talking about is the detention of a sports education teacher from Mitrovica with the initials I. M., was confirmed by the Kosovo police and his lawyer Nebojša Vlajić, who said that I. M. was detained for making a statement in connection with an attack on Albanian journalists from the Insajderi that took place in Mitrovica about a month ago. Vlajić added that I.M. had nothing to do with this case, while KoSSev claimed that it was this Mitrovica resident who came to the aid of the journalist who was attacked. The Kosovo police did not confirm in which case I.M. was questioned.

It also says that neither the demands for the release of Slobodan Trajkovic and Miljan Adžić nor the withdrawal of Kosovo Special Forces from the north of Kosovo have been met.

He points out that Belgrade representatives have said that they have received assurances that the Kosovo Security Forces (KBS) will not come to the north, but that the Serbs are demanding from the barricades that the Kosovo Police Special Forces do not come.

About the protest’s demands, Miletić says that they are asking that “if the state of Serbia cannot help them better”, the Serbs, with logistical help, which he says is welcome, should fight for themselves and not be led by the people from Belgrade. Specifically, he asks that solutions and decisions not be imposed on them, as he believes that local Serbs know best what is good for their lives.

We want to decide for ourselves what is best for us and our children. And no one will ever give up on Serbia, it is the only country we are bound to. Kosovo is still Serbia, Miletić explains.

Asked about the behaviour of the Serbian List after the withdrawal from the barricades, Miletić replied that they are not in public because “they might have at least a little bit of shame”.

We had hoped that someone would come to us in Rudare, but they didn’t dare because of the citizens’ discontent, he believes./Danas/