Mitic: By arresting based on social media photos, Pristina is raising the "hunt for Serbs" to a higher level

Aleksandar Mitic, a research fellow at the Institute for International Politics and Economics, said for Kosovo Online that the arrest of Serbs by the Kosovo Police based on photos and comments posted on social media represented a severe violation of human rights. He believes this is part of raising the "hunt for Serbs" to an even higher level, with the aim of ethnically cleansing northern Kosovo.

He emphasizes that in such a situation, Serbs should be protected by EULEX, but he claims that this mission has "washed its hands" of its mandate.

"This should be a concern for EULEX since this mission is mandated to oversee procedures related to the rule of law. However, it is evident that they have abandoned their mandate and allowed Pristina to arbitrarily implement such terror. This not only leads to pressure but also to further ethnic cleansing of Serbs from Kosovo and Metohija," Mitic stated.

He views the "hunt for Serbs via social media" as another worrisome move by Pristina, which will continue if there isn't a stronger political response from the Quint countries.

"This is another troubling move and trend, and I'm convinced it will continue unless there's a strong reaction. We can't expect that from EULEX, but if there's no political pressure on Pristina from its sponsors in the Quint countries. Without that, I don't believe such actions can be stopped," he emphasized.

However, if we look at the broader picture, over the past year and a half, as Milic says, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has persistently worked on escalating the violent takeover of the north, suppressing any Serbian resistance, and severing the connections between the Serbian people in Kosovo and Serbia. He adds that all of this was done with the consent, and sometimes encouragement, of the Quint countries.

In Mitic's view, the behavior of Western actors has been identical before and after the conflict in Banjska, so there's no reason to expect a different response now.

"Everyone refers to Banjska now, but if we take into account everything that happened before, the behavior of the Quint and Western actors is identical both before and after. We didn't see that they made any efforts before the events in Banjska to challenge Kurti's intentions and actions in any way, so I don't expect it to happen now. In the last few days, they believe they have more maneuvering space, and it's more convenient for them to give Kurti a free hand than it was before these events. Essentially, this is the same as giving a green light to Kurti and Pristina, just as it was before Banjska. I don't expect a more serious reaction now, I would be surprised if it happened," Mitic concluded.