Starovic: Boycotting the fake referendum is the best non-violent response of Serbs to oppression

State Secretary in the Serbian Ministry of Defense, Nemanja Starovic, stated that the Serbian boycott of the referendum in northern Kosovo was successful and represented the best possible non-violent response to oppression.

"In a clear expression of defiance, local Serbs boycotted the fake referendums, with only 0.54 percent turning out at the polling stations. It was the best possible, peaceful, democratic, non-violent response to the long-standing oppression; they have been subjected to it for too long. By boycotting today's fake referendums, the Serbs in northern Kosovo have rejected the insult to their common sense and preserved their much-valued dignity," Starovic noted on the platform "X".

He reminded of his earlier post where he detailed why the referendums in the four northern municipalities were designed by the authorities in Pristina to fail from the start.

In that post, Starovic presented ten clear, easily verifiable facts.

Firstly, he mentioned that the Serbs resigned from local institutions in November 2022 after the illegal dismissal of the regional police commander and 10 years of waiting for Pristina to establish the Community of Serb Municipalities.

He then pointed out that in April 2023, Albanians elected mayors and local councilors with a 3.5 percent turnout.

Starovic also recalled that Pristina had not met the demands of the Quint countries to remove the illegitimate mayors from municipal headquarters, leading to conflicts in May 2023.

He stated that Pristina had meanwhile saturated the region with a militarized, mono-national Albanian special police force, continually harassing and intimidating local Serbs.

"Pristina banned all goods produced in central Serbia in June 2023 based on an oral order, blatantly disregarding both the CEFTA agreement and their Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA) with the EU Commission," Starovic noted.

He reminded that Serbia unilaterally resolved the long-standing issue of vehicle registration plates in December 2023, only to face the most drastic escalation measure undertaken by the interim Prime Minister Kurti a few days later, abolishing the Serbian currency, thus putting existential pressure on the most vulnerable groups within the Serbian community such as pensioners and families receiving social assistance.

"Serbs agreed to organize a petition to recall the illegitimate Albanian mayors, which was signed by 20 percent of the electorate, meaning six times more voters than those who elected them in the sham elections in April 2022. Although such a petition should have led to the immediate resignations of the illegitimate Albanian mayors, as promised by the Quint countries, Pristina announced a recall referendum requiring a turnout of more than 50 percent of registered voters, effectively setting a goal that is impossible to achieve, given the actual number of people remaining in the north after the quiet exodus of Serbs over the last two years and other maliciously imposed technical conditions," Starovic explained.

He added that even if Serbs somehow managed to meet such impossible criteria, the recall referendums would only lead to new mayoral elections, while the municipal parliaments would still be controlled by illegitimate Albanian councilors, who could block any decision, including joining the CSM if it is ever to be established.

"Despite Pristina being subject to formal EU restrictive measures (too weak and symbolic to have any effect), the interim Prime Minister Kurti continues to receive rewards for his bad behavior – visa liberalization with the EU, recommendation for SE membership, and enhanced status within the NATO Parliamentary Assembly," Starovic concluded in the post he published on April 8.