Svecla: "Serbian propaganda" – they call placing a hand 'choking'

Kosovo’s Acting Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Svecla, claims that reports about yesterday’s incident in North Mitrovica, when, as seen in videos circulating on social media, a Kosovo Police officer lunged at a Serbian high school student, are “Serbian propaganda.”

“This is what Serbian propaganda looks like: A police officer’s request for a group not to provoke citizens to avoid escalation is labeled as violence, and placing a hand is called choking. They refer to their displays of extremism and chauvinism as a celebration, while the red paint they used on their bodies is being portrayed as blood. Nothing new from them,” Svecla wrote on Facebook.

He added that this “propaganda can only influence the uninformed and nationalist circles in Serbia.”

However, video footage circulating on social media shows that the incident occurred yesterday in the pedestrian zone of North Mitrovica, near the main bridge over the Ibar River. The videos clearly show a Kosovo Police officer lunging at a Serbian high school student and repeatedly grabbing him around the neck.

The high school graduates were celebrating the end of the school year, and while walking along the promenade, videos show that Albanians seated in nearby cafés were shouting at them and making the double-headed eagle hand gesture.

The excessive use of force by the Kosovo Police was condemned last night by EULEX chief Giovanni Pietro Barbano.

Today, Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs issued a warrant for the arrest of the Kosovo Police officer for the assault on the Serbian student.