Simic: Detention of heads of Serbian institutions aimed at intimidating Serbs ahead of elections

The decision to impose 30-day detention on the directors of Serbian institutions in Gracanica is a continuation of the pressure that Albin Kurti is carrying out against Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, who are now suffering organized institutional terror, said today Igor Simic, member of the presidency of the Serb List (SL).

He pointed out that the heads of the two pillars of the survival of Serbs in Kosovo - education and healthcare - had come under attack.

“These are the people who run our schools, elementary and secondary, health centers and the Clinical Hospital Center. Therefore, seven respected Serbian men and women, honorable people and family men and women, are being held in detention together with people from criminal circles, with the aim of Albin Kurti humiliating them, breaking their resistance simply because they love Serbia, because they serve the Serbian people, because they treat and educate Serbian children, and in that way also send a message to all other Serbs,” Simic said, RTV reports.

He assessed that the aim is to exert pressure in order to discourage and intimidate Serbs ahead of the upcoming elections on June 7.

“Albin Kurti, together with his favorite Nenad Rasic, realized that he does not have the support of the Serbian people. In the previous three election cycles, his favorite received a mandate in the assembly in Pristina by first receiving 1,200, and in the last elections 1,700 Albanian votes. Now they realized he needs many more, because Serbs do not want to support someone who is ready to sell out for personal gain, and then they decided to put pressure on all free and honorable Serbs,” Simic said.

Commenting on the fact that Pristina institutions announced that the investigation against the seven Serbian officials over the alleged “violation of the free will of voters” had been launched after claims by acting Minister for Communities and Returns Nenad Rasic about alleged threats to voters ahead of the June 7 elections, Simic said the trigger was that the directors had suspended certain workers in their institutions for disciplinary violations, emphasizing that this should be treated as a labor dispute.

“No, these people transferred a violation of work discipline, thanks to Rasic, into the sphere of politics and called on Kosovo institutions to react. Instead of filing complaints with Serbian institutions and resolving the matter, proving that someone may have made a mistake, they decided to use this for the campaign, because many of those people have direct contacts with Nenad Rasic, and for him this was an excellent opportunity to fulfill Albin Kurti’s wishes,” Simic assessed.

He said that on March 15, thanks to the support of the state leadership and work on the ground with international representatives, an incursion by Kosovo police into Serbian educational and healthcare institutions had been prevented, and that Rasic has now directly brought Kosovo police into the institutions.

He stressed that this was only one in a series of Kurti’s actions, noting that the number of members of election committees from the Serb List had also been reduced.

“We now have 25 fewer than in the December elections. In North Mitrovica alone, out of 22 polling stations, we have no control over six. Therefore, where 6,000 voters cast ballots, we will not be able to monitor the process. A few days ago they went a step further. For the first time since 1999, the presidents of municipal election commissions are not Serbs, and not only are they not Serbs, they are not even employees of the Central Election Commission, but employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs working within the Citizen Registration Center, or what in our Serbian system is called administrative affairs within the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” Simic specified.

He stated that there were outstanding Serbian candidates, but all were rejected under the excuse that they lacked experience, despite having participated in election committees for several years.

“Everything is being done to render the process meaningless and to frighten Serbs or otherwise discourage them from going out and exercising their voting rights,” Simic said.

Commenting on the Supreme Court rejecting the SL’s appeal against the electoral panel’s decision to certify Nenad Rasic’s electoral list, Simic said that list, or civic initiative, had applied to participate in elections where they want to win parliamentary seats reserved for Serbs.

“So, Serbs are entitled to ten seats, however, you have Mr. Alil Djerlek, who is literally a Bosniak, and everyone knows it. Let no one misunderstand, we have nothing against any community, but the man is running for a parliamentary position that belongs to Serbs. Then you have Lazar Radulovic, a man who was president of an association of Montenegrins, who has dozens of public appearances in which he claims he advocates greater rights for Montenegrins, because as their representative he is demanding it,” Simic said.

He added that the Supreme Court responded to the appeal by saying that the SL had not proven those people were not Serbs.

“Why is that dangerous? Tomorrow Albin Kurti will, in some future elections, form a list that will also apply for those ten reserved seats. When there are those ten reserved seats, and he nominates ten Albanians for them, it will not be a problem for him to transfer 10,000-20,000 votes to them. Then we will have a situation where those quasi-Serbs, who are in fact Albanians, will vote for constitutional changes and legally enable the unification of Kosovo with Albania, the abolition of the Serbian language, the abolition of the Serbian Orthodox Church and its merger with the Albanian national church,” Simic warned.

Particularly worrying, he said, is the fact that representatives of the international community also declared the previous elections democratic, despite Rasic entering the assembly with Albanian votes.

“In Kacanik there have been no Serbs for the past several decades, and there the man received 50 votes. In Djakovica, where we only have a few elderly people, he received 50. In Prizren, where there are around twenty Serbs, not counting theology students who in any case do not all have voting rights because they are not all from Kosovo and Metohija - he received 336 votes, predominantly Albanian. Therefore, this is a way to circumvent the will of the Serbian people and deny them the basic right to choose whom they want and who will represent them,” Simic stated.

Asked to comment on the reaction of the international community to the arrest of Serbian institution directors, Simic said that this time even statements were absent, which is especially worrying.

Simic said that protests by all education and healthcare workers in Gracanica are continuing and will be held every day from 9 a.m., with support from other healthcare workers across Kosovo.

He stressed that the protests are a reminder to the international community to react, but added that he does not have high expectations.

He said that the SL is fighting against a policy that means the disappearance of the Serbian people and against those who only want to nod their heads in Pristina and serve as political decoration.

He stressed that without the support of the Serbian state there would no longer be Serbs in Kosovo.

“On the other hand, we in Kosovo and Metohija also understand the position our country is in, that it is under pressure from international powers, that Serbian police officers are being attacked in the streets of our cities, that Serbian institutions are being attacked, and we understand from which centers of power this is coming,” Simic said.

He pointed out that the budget of the provisional Kosovo institutions for 2026 amounts to four billion euros, and that not a single cent of that amount is intended for the ten Serb-majority municipalities.

Simic stressed that it is important for Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija to show unity in the upcoming elections.

“These are not just any elections, these are not elections where ten people are being chosen. These are elections in which you choose whether you will exist, whether you will be able to study normally, receive healthcare, and work. That is why we are fighting, and against us is not some political party, but part of a regime that wants Serbs to disappear,” he said.

Asked to comment on the formation of the gendarmerie announced by Albin Kurti, Simic recalled that in the past several years nine police bases, stations, and checkpoints had been built on the land of Serbian households.

“The announcement of the formation of a gendarmerie is simply a change of uniforms in order to further militarize the area and exert pressure on the Serbian people. Kurti wants at all costs to render meaningless the agreement prohibiting Kosovo security forces from coming to the north of Kosovo and Metohija. He wants to see Albanians in green uniforms on the administrative line with central Serbia,” Simic said.

He added that the number of criminal offenses in the four municipalities in northern Kosovo and Metohija, relative to the number of residents, is several times lower than in Albanian-populated areas.

On Tuesday in Gracanica, a group of directors of Serbian educational and healthcare institutions was detained on suspicion of allegedly committing the criminal offense of “violating the free will of voters,” and the prosecution in Pristina announced that they were detained following claims by acting Minister for Communities and Returns Nenad Rasic about alleged threats to voters ahead of the June 7 elections.