On the fifth day since the start of the pre-election campaign for the Kosovo parliamentary elections, Serbian institutions south of the Ibar have been closed. Citizens are faced with a series of unanswered questions. Experience from the north leads them to believe that they will also have to do things in central Serbia. What do citizens who live south of the Ibar say? Finally, whether and what this has to do with the election campaign
"Since the institutions were closed in the north, we all expected that this would happen in the south as well," a source known to the editorial staff who lives in south of the Ibar. "What we didn't know then, and what we still don't know to this day, is what to do next? What should we do now? How do we renew documents when they expire? How do we withdraw money? No one referred us."
Early in the morning, on Wednesday, January 15, the Kosovo police occupied the facilities of the institutions Government of Serbia south of the Ibar. The Serbian list announced that the work of ten temporary authorities, the office of the PIO fund in Gračanica, the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, the Center for Social Work and the offices of the Post of Serbia were prevented. They also said that employees will continue to receive salaries.
"We are aware that employees will continue to receive salaries. But what will happen to the people here? The employees are secured, but what about us?", asks our source.
The director of the Center for Social Work, Nemanja Petković, says that there are about 450 families who are beneficiaries of cash social assistance.
The Serbian list did not respond to calls and messages from the "Vremena" editorial office. We asked them what will happen to citizens who receive cash social assistance; how and where will they withdraw money if the branches of the Post of Serbia are closed; did they discuss everything with the citizens.
The source explains that his parents and friends are receiving welfare and child benefit and are hoping for a payment.
"The only thing left for us is to go to central Serbia and take that money, but when the documents are renewed - what then?" Will we be able to extend them, and they are renewed twice a year. We have no information.”
He adds: "It is difficult here for the people. From the environment, from friends and relatives, I often hear the sentence: 'There is no life here anymore'. How will we proceed? What now? My child will finish school and where will he get a job? Institutions are shutting down. Again, on the other hand, I don't see any involvement from Belgrade".
What does this mean for citizens of the Republic of Serbia, i.e. Kosovo Serbs, but also other communities? Jovana Radosavljević from the New Social Initiative for "Vreme" says that, just like in the north, people simply no longer have direct access to public services and their jobs in the places where they lived, but will have to adapt to new circumstances - "services will unfortunately, to be moved to central Serbia".
"We saw the immediate meeting of the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and the president of the Serbian List on this issue, and it is assumed that such a solution, some similar solution, will be reached," explains our interlocutor.
Our source also assumes that. He adds that he does not understand why people are silent about all this. "It's not the best situation, it's not ideal at all. Somehow people here adapted even earlier. In central Kosovo, protests are organized by order. So, if Belgrade is in favor of a protest, then it is organized. People alone rarely. I was even once part of a protest when there was an allotment of apartments. Then apartments were allocated to doctors and so on. About twenty of us disaffected gathered ourselves. Now I find it strange that no protest was organized. Is it some kind of sign, some kind of agreement and the like." Radosavljević says that political representatives are the ones who should communicate with citizens, but this has not happened in the public space, if we exclude the condemnation of the actions of the government in Pristina.
"Potentially, there was communication on some informal level or within the pre-election campaign, at various gatherings that they organize. However, this did not reach the public in the way it should, which is that people know what they can expect in the coming period, especially when it comes to the services they depend on," says Radosavljević.
She adds that this is one of the omissions on the Serbian side, although it is not unexpected to see such moves by Self-Determination, which built the entire campaign on the "expulsion of the Republic of Serbia from the territory of Kosovo, that is, on the conquest of the north." So we can expect these kinds of things in the next 20 days, which is how long we have left until the election."
CLOSURE DURING THE HEIGHT OF THE CAMPAIGN
The pre-election campaign for the Kosovo parliamentary elections started on January 11, so this closure happened in the midst of the pre-election campaign.
Dzeljalj Svečlja, Kosovo's Minister of Internal Affairs, said at the time: "Dear citizens, as of today, the chapter of parallel, illegal, criminal institutions of Serbia in the Republic of Kosovo is closing. In Banja and everywhere, in other parts of the Republic of Kosovo, municipal facilities, post offices, tax administrations, all parallel institutions stop working".
On that day, after the action, the Pristina Prosecutor's Office announced that it did not authorize the search of the Serbian institutions: "No one authorized the control or raid at these locations, because there was no official written request for the execution of this action by the competent institutions, for which no evidence was submitted to the state to the prosecutor for creating suspicion that a criminal offense is being committed under the jurisdiction of the Basic Prosecutor's Office in Prishtina".
What was done during the campaign is not surprising, explains Radosavljević. "It is that in the past months the focus of the current government in Pristina was exclusively on the north and that is one of the main messages we hear, but as many Serbian institutions were in the north, there were as many in the south," she says. "It seems they need concrete political points now."
INTERNATIONAL CRITICISMS
The European Union, the USA and other key international organizations and embassies warn of the negative consequences of such actions by the Kosovo authorities, the portal Alternativna reported.
Among other things, the US embassy in Pristina expressed concern over the "uncoordinated actions of the Government of Kosovo", stressing that they negatively affect citizens, including Serbs, and Kosovo's weak efforts to join the Euro-Atlantic community.
The European Union assessed that the closure of Serbian institutions during the election campaign is not in line with Kosovo's obligations towards the normalization process, while the French embassy pointed out that the closure of institutions can significantly affect the daily life of citizens.
Radosavljević points out that the reaction of the international community seems much harsher than before, but that, again, this does not mean anything: "These institutions are closed, these services are no longer available to people, people cannot go to their jobs and their problems have not been solved. . This is just one of a series of cases that happened in previous years, when there was a questionable closure of Serbian institutions outside of the Brussels process, without a concrete solution for the people who depend on these services. This government does not pay much attention to the criticism of the international community, nor to the judicial system itself, i.e. the prosecution."
He reminds that on several occasions they had statements from international officials, and even from the State Department itself, which speaks of the Kosovo police as an instrument of the ruling party in Pristina.
"This very clearly shows that we have here the capture of this mechanism by the ruling party, which uses the Kosovo police exclusively as its power to solve, that is, to achieve some of its political goals," concludes Radosavljević.
ELECTION CAMPAIGN
In addition to the closure of institutions south of the Ibar during the campaign - which stood out in the public eye as one of the "key" actions - other actions by various political entities were also seen. 28 political entities will participate in the parliamentary elections. 10 seats out of a total of 120 in the Kosovo parliament are reserved for representatives of the Serbian community.
Self-determination, led by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, organized various rallies, and one of the first was in South Mitrovica. At that meeting, the flags of Albania were red, and the flags of "Greater Albania" were also seen.
"I think that this kind of campaign very clearly shows the attitude towards Kosovo Serbs and towards Kosovo as a multi-ethnic and tolerant society", concludes Radosavljević. "I think that, at least for Self-Determination, that idea of Kosovo has absolutely disappeared. You can only look at the pictures that the prime minister himself uploads on his Facebook page. He openly uploads pictures from the rally in South Mitrovica, where the third photo is the one from the crowd where the flag of 'Greater Albania' is primarily visible. It says a lot about the kind of society this party imagines and it is potentially very dangerous because it talks about pretensions that go beyond the borders of Kosovo and which are definitely not in the spirit of reconciliation or coexistence." If we have Self-Determination that will form the next government in Kosovo, we cannot talk about a period that could potentially be appropriate for some concrete progress in the matter of normalizing relations between Belgrade and Pristina. So that's very concerning."
At the beginning of the campaign, the Serbian List announced that "it will certainly represent the interests of the Serbian people in the Kosovo parliament, as it has been so far." By the way, since November 2022, they have appeared in the Kosovo parliament solely for the purpose of verifying their mandate and without essential participation in the work of the assembly. During the campaign, they mostly visited health centers.
"In general, people are very upset about the representation they have from political representatives of Kosovo Serbs and the mood is such that there is no great enthusiasm of the citizens themselves to participate in the election process", explains Radosavljević.
On the other hand, she notes, the exit from the institutions in November 2022 led to an institutional as well as leadership vacuum, which created space for the emergence of new political actors, but also the revival of some old ones, which were previously part of the system. "We now have a very unique situation with six political entities representing the Serbian community, and this is most similar to the period of 2014, i.e. immediately after the signing of the Brussels Agreement, when the Serbs first participated in the electoral processes in Kosovo. I also believe that the turnout will be similar", believes Radosavljević. "The north is facing many problems, but due to the current focus of the political elites, but also the international community, and even the media itself, there is a kind of neglect of what is happening in the south, but the situation is definitely not better compared to the north of Kosovo."
A source speaking for "Vreme" sends a message that Belgrade should be more involved in the lives of people south of the Ibar. "It's mostly how people live in the north, and here we are kind of in the middle."
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