Starovic: Kurti has been waging a campaign of "fire and fury" against Serbs in Kosovo for five years

Serbian Minister for European Integration Nemanja Starovic said that the beating of Nenad Raskovic was one in a series of incidents targeting Serbs in Kosovo, adding that it was part of a campaign that had been underway since Albin Kurti came to power in Pristina's institutions, RTV reported.

"The Office for Kosovo and Metohija has recorded around 800 incidents targeting Serbs since Kurti took over the provisional institutions of self-government five years ago. And, as the President of the Republic, Aleksandar Vucic, emphasized, both our public and the wider European and global public have had an opportunity to see the consequences of that brutal treatment. Indeed, Nenad Raskovic's back represents the face of Albin Kurti's regime," Starovic said.

He stated that for the past five years Albin Kurti had been pursuing his "campaign of fire and fury," primarily against Serbs in Kosovo, through various unilateral measures.

"Above all, through the actions of his special, militarized, monoethnic Albanian units of the 'Kosovo Police,' through their incursions into northern Kosovo and Metohija, the establishment of a permanent presence, and the construction of bases that are de facto military in nature, from Bistrica Bridge onward. If you look at those reinforced-concrete structures and their permanent presence, this has resulted in the continuous harassment of Serbs over a prolonged period. Ultimately, Albin Kurti himself, in what amounted to a public declaration three years ago, stated that Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija would have to 'suffer and pay.' No matter how much anyone tries to interpret that as some kind of figure of speech, it was in fact a manifesto of the policy he has been implementing in practice," Starovic said.

He described as cynical the assessments of some international non-governmental organizations, such as Freedom House, which portray the Pristina administration as though it were "a beacon of democracy and human rights."

"When an entire community—and I am referring to Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija—is excluded from the rule of law and deprived of even its basic human, political, and economic rights, that is, at the very least, methodologically unacceptable and, in any event, inhumane," Starovic said.

Asked whether he was surprised by the lack of a reaction from Brussels, Starovic replied that he was not, but that Serbia had to continue insisting on and demanding such reactions.

"What we have been witnessing for a prolonged period is an approach known as 'bothsidesism.' Whatever wrongdoing the provisional institutions of self-government headed by Albin Kurti may commit, Brussels will always speak about two sides and the responsibility of both sides," Starovic said.

He added that Serbia had to insist on reactions, although, as he put it, "we cannot expect them."