Radakovic: Closure of facilities in the north part of Self-Determination’s campaign

Dušan Radakovic from the NGO Center for Advocacy of Democratic Culture (ACDC) stated that today’s closure of Serbian Railways facilities in northern Kosovo was expected, considering that Self-Determination’s primary focus in recent years has been the north.

“Such developments were expected because this is effectively Self-Determination’s campaign. They did publish a document outlining several points regarding their plans, but generally political parties do not have any concrete plans. For the past five or six years, Self-Determination’s main agenda has been the north and the pressure exerted there. What concerns me are possible new arrests for war crimes, or perhaps actions similar to the operation in Gracanica involving the arrest of the director, although there have not been such cases in the north, as well as people losing their jobs. All of this is being presented as part of Self-Determination’s election campaign, and that is what was expected,” Radakovic told Kosovo Online.

Radakovic expects this type of Self-Determination campaign to continue.

“There is not much else they can offer, and this ultra-nationalist rhetoric of ‘the north is ours, we control the north’ reminds me very much of the 1990s and what was happening then. There will certainly be more such actions in the coming days. All parties are fighting for every vote without concrete political plans — what we can achieve, what the possibilities are, what coalitions might be formed. Instead, we are talking about arrests, opening and closing institutions, and so on. This has become an established procedure, which is harmful to the Serbian community in Kosovo,” he said.