Sports Association of Serbia on police raid at STO Leposavic: A bandit act that endangers children's rights

The Sports Association of Serbia has strongly condemned the Kosovo Police raid on the premises of the Sports and Tourism Organization in Leposavic, calling the action a “bandit act that directly endangers the rights of children.” The police raid was also condemned by Serbia’s State Secretary at the Ministry of Sports, Marko Keselj, who stated that all are witnessing a “biological and cultural genocide” against Serbs living in Kosovo, Kurir reports.

Led by President Davor Stefanek and Secretary General Goran Marinkovic, the Sports Association of Serbia issued a sharp condemnation of what they described as “bandit acts that directly endanger children's rights” and block the functioning of its member organizations—territorial sports associations operating in Kosovo.

“For years, the population in the southern Serbian province has suffered under the terror of the so-called Kosovo authorities, who have provoked and denied them their basic human rights. Today marks yet another unacceptable move orchestrated by Albin Kurti and his illegitimate mayor Lulzim Hetemi, accompanied by the so-called Kosovo police. The premises of the sports hall in Leposavic, where the Sports and Tourism Organization is located, have been seized. Such intrusions and confiscation of sports facilities—constructed solely through Serbia’s budget funds—deserve the strongest condemnation. Now, hundreds of Serbian children are banned from accessing a place where they could engage in physical activity, develop properly, socialize, and educate themselves,” the statement reads.

The raid on the STO premises in Leposavic was also condemned by State Secretary in the Serbian Ministry of Sports and basketball player Marko Keselj.

“Peaceful sleep, the freedom to live... These are the things that Kosovo and Metohija Serbs have been dreaming of for 26 years, ever since the occupation and terror began in the southern Serbian province by the Albanian side—the initiators and financiers of the ongoing policy of oppression and erasure of everything Serbian south of the Ibar. The occupiers strike indiscriminately, attacking everything Serbian. Today, the facilities of the sports hall in Leposavic, home to the Sports and Tourism Organization, were attacked and seized by Kurti's illegitimate mayor Ljuljzim Hetemi, accompanied by the Kosovo Police,” Keselj stated.

According to him, we are all witnesses to “a biological and cultural genocide against Serbs living in the southern Serbian province,” characterized by violence against people and families, property seizures, and the desecration of global communities and nations.

“It is the year 2025, and Serbs in Kosovo are enduring horrific torture by usurpers and the current trend of depriving innocent Serbian individuals of their freedom in Kosovo and Metohija, along with the illegal confiscation of property. The Albanian violence and crimes against Serbian life in Kosovo and Metohija are now increasingly affecting sports as well. By seizing sports facilities and banning Serbian children from accessing them, their right to participate in sports—which is a human right recognized by international law—is being directly denied,” Keselj emphasized.

He pointed out that international charters guarantee every human being the fundamental right to engage in sports.

“In the modern world, sport is an extremely important and significant social activity. Yet, this same modern world remains mute and blind in the face of the terror that the Albanians are inflicting on our children and the entire Serbian population in Kosovo and Metohija. The chronicle of suffering of Kosovo and Metohija Serbs is long and centuries-old, painful and bloody, but the heavenly people have never bowed. This tyranny too shall pass, the sacred Serbian land will breathe freely once again, and our children will live in liberty,” concluded Marko Keselj in his statement.