Pilja at PACE: Silence prevails when we talk about attacks on Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija

Head of the Serbian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Biljana Pantic Pilja said today, during a debate on the Report on the elections in Kosovo, that these were the third parliamentary elections in 18 months and that this fact alone spoke volumes about the depth of the political instability and institutional crisis. She also said that silence prevailed when it came to attacks on Serbs in Kosovo and their security.

“But, frankly, should any of this really surprise us? You took 14 percent of Serbia’s territory. What have you built in the heart of Europe? A system in which people accused or convicted of the most serious crimes can be glorified as heroes?” Pilja quoted herself as saying in her address in a post on Instagram.

She recalled that the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe had adopted Dick Marty’s report and a resolution concerning trafficking in human organs, including allegations linked to the so-called “Yellow House.”

“Those allegations concerned members of the KLA and were the subject of serious international investigations,” Pilja pointed out.

She asked where the reaction had been to the attacks on the EULEX mission in Pristina and what had been done when attacks and pressure were directed against a European mission because of judicial proceedings and judgments involving former KLA members.

“There is silence on these issues. Silence also prevails when we talk about attacks on Serbs. Silence when we talk about their security. Silence when we talk about their rights. Silence when we remind you that the Community of Serb-Majority Municipalities, one of the key obligations under the Brussels Agreement, has still not been established. Silence when Nazism is glorified in an EU Member State—Croatia,” Pilja said.

In her speech at the autumn session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Pilja stressed that the institution had been established to protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law, adding that international law was not “a menu from which we can choose whatever suits us politically.”

“The problem is not the existence of rights. The problem is whether they are respected. When international law and signed agreements are applied selectively, in accordance with political interests, you are not protecting the international order. You are undermining it. And when you undermine the principles on which the international order rests, you do not solve problems. You open Pandora’s box. You object to the funeral of General Ratko Mladic, who defended his country in wartime. Attending a funeral is a personal act in every democratic society, and nothing gives you the right to decide how or who should attend a funeral,” Pilja said.