On November 29, in Pristina, NGO Aktiv presented the Report “Unmasking Security Challenges Within the Kosovo Serb Community”, which provides an overview of the work of protective mechanisms of non-majority communities, with a special emphasis on security issues in areas with a Serb majority population.
The Report states that the Serbian community in Kosovo is in a security crisis and that the feeling of insecurity is dominant.
“The Serbian community in northern Kosovo is exposed to significant security risks, particularly emphasized after local Serbs left Kosovo institutions in November of last year”, the Report states.
It is stated that in the last three years, there has been a significant increase in cases of threats to personal and property security in areas inhabited by Serbs in Kosovo. The most commonly reported incidents are burglaries or thefts, followed by physical attacks and property damage.
Presenting the Report’s findings and recommendations, the executive director of the NGO Aktiv Miodrag Milićević estimated that the events in the North have changed the political dynamics, and that almost half of the respondents do not see themselves in Kosovo in the next five years, two-thirds of whom are young.
According to Milićević, the absence of institutional dialogue between Serbs and Albanians, as well as a lack of trust in Kosovo’s institutions, led to a security crisis in Kosovo, primarily in the Serbian community.
“The vast majority of Serbs feel unsafe in Kosovo. By far the largest number of incidents in the last year was recorded in the north. The beginning of the security vacuum is the exit of the Serbs from the institutions in the north of Kosovo,” Milićević said.
Analyzing the attitudes and perception of the Serbian community regarding the security situation, the executive director of KIPRED, Lulzim Peci, said that the situation in the north of Kosovo requires a political solution, while it is necessary for the Kosovo Police to increase transparency when it comes to the Serbian community.
The editor-in-chief of Radio Kim from Čaglavica, Goran Avramović, spoke about the challenges faced by Serbs in Kosovo. According to him, problems in the relations between Serbs in Kosovo and members of the Kosovo Police, in addition to the north, were also noted south of the Ibar River. He stated that in Gračanica there were more complaints about “excessive use of force and mistreatment”.
As other problems, he mentioned unplanned restrictions in the electricity supply, especially in returnee villages, violation of the law on the use of language, the safety of journalists, illegal construction, etc. Avramović assessed that the Serbian community sees these and other problems as pressure.
The Report “Unmasking Security Challenges Within the Kosovo Serb Community” can be downloaded HERE.
