Office for Kosovo and Metohija: Miletic a victim of the international community's betrayed and empty promises

Slobodan Miletic was detained today at Jarinje despite firm guarantees from the EU and the US that there would be no persecution or retaliation against Serbs who expressed dissatisfaction with protests and barricades in 2022. He is a victim of the international community's betrayed and empty promises, announced the Office for Kosovo and Metohija this evening after Miletic was remanded in custody.

"Slobodan Miletic from Zvecan was detained today at the Jarinje administrative crossing and was held under the pretext of participating in the protests of Serbs in the north of Kosovo and Metohija and barricades, despite firm guarantees from the EU and the US as of December 28, 2022, that there would be no persecution or retaliation against Serbs for expressing their dissatisfaction due to Kurti's occupation of the north of Kosovo and Metohija," the statement said.

They point out that, following Srecko Sofronijevic, Miletic was detained as a victim of the betrayed and empty promises of the international community, which today said nothing about the arrest of another Serb, while for a recent routine brief detention in central Serbia of a Kosovar Albanian, they exerted all possible diplomatic and media pressures on Belgrade and "competed in words of condemnation."

"It is clear that for them Serbian wounds do not exist, nor are those responsible for the wounding of Dragisa Galjak, Milan Jovanovic, the Stojanovic brothers from Gotovusa, and many other innocent Serbs," the statement indicates.

It is reminded that dozens of Serbs from Kosovo have been arbitrarily and baselessly arrested since Albin Kurti became the head of the government in Pristina.

They add that the Office for Kosovo and Metohija has also provided a lawyer for the detained Miletic on this occasion.

"The execution of legal violence against the Serbian people in Kosovo and Metohija is part of a broader campaign of violence aimed at forcing as many Serbs as possible to leave our southern province, and behind it all lies a criminal intent and plan of gradual ethnic cleansing," the statement says.

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija also notes that Kosovo is the only part of Europe where it is quite usual to hold political prisoners in a "dungeon" for months without indictment and evidence.

"Those who promote the image of self-proclaimed 'Kosovo' as a champion of democracy must also explain this phenomenon," they add.

The Office for Kosovo and Metohija warns that pressures on the Serbian people in Kosovo are increasing day by day, fearing that in the weeks and months to come, due to the daily political interests of Albin Kurti, they will continue to intensify and escalate.