Todic wrote to the Quint and the missions in Kosovo: Do you support Kurti's policy that there are no rights and laws for the Serbs?

The former mayor of Leposavic, Zoran Todic, sent a letter to the ambassadors of the Quint countries, the heads of the EU Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, OSCE, and EULEX, as well as the KFOR commander regarding the decision of the Government in Pristina on the expropriation of land in the north of Kosovo owned by the Serbs, which is located on the territory of that municipality.

"The property right is inviolable and absolute in your countries, and you are well aware that encroachment on it is possible exceptionally and based on strict and precise legal regulations and procedures. The Law on Expropriation of Immovable Property (03/L-139) is also one of such laws - very precise, with clearly defined procedures, reasons, and possibilities for property expropriation. However, its application by the current Government shows that it is not valid and is not applied equally to everyone in Kosovo," Todic states in the letter.

He adds that as the former mayor of the municipality of Leposavic, which, in the meantime, has been dissolved by the Government in Pristina and which at the moment does not actually exist or function, he is obliged to point out a series of problematic decisions in this way out of his obligation to the citizens who live in its territory, also the activities of the Government in Pristina related to land expropriation procedures in the territory of the Leposavic municipality, which, in addition to worrying the owners of the affected property, in his words bring fear and discomfort to all other residents.

"As you are probably aware, the Government passed Decision No. 01/119 of January 16, 2023, approving the declaration of special public interest of the owner's immovable property; Decision No. 02/124 of February 2, 2023, which approves the request on its own initiative for the expropriation of real estate located on the territory of the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok, which aim to build infrastructure projects for the public interest, as well as decision 01/124 of February 2, 2023, which authorizes the Ministry of spatial planning, environment, and infrastructure, to perform preparatory works on real estate located in the cadastral zones Dren and Lesak in the municipality of Leposavic," Todić reminded.

According to his words, such decisions made by the Government in Pristina represented violations of the Law on Expropriation, the Constitution, and International Conventions that regulated the expropriation procedure, and behind which, as he added, there was an obvious intention to achieve certain political goals, but also to cover up illegal activities and measures that had already been taken during the construction of the existing special police bases, which had been pointed out to the Government by international representatives.

"The provision of Article 4 of the Law on Expropriation clearly provides for what purposes the expropriation procedure can be undertaken when the expropriation authority is the Government. In each of these cases, the public interest is linked exclusively to the economic interest and well-being of citizens, such as the construction of facilities for the provision of public education, health, and social protection services, construction of roads, mines, energy, plants, and the like," Todic pointed out.

However, as he added, in the aforementioned decisions of the Government, which, apart from contradicting in many respects the provisions of the Law on Expropriation of Immovable Property, it could not be established for what purpose the public interest was determined and the expropriation procedure was carried out, and which the authority that carried out expropriation in accordance with the provisions of Articles 7 and 8 of the same law, had been obliged to state.

"There is only an indication of that purpose, based solely on what government officials say in the media, that it is expropriation to build a police and military base. Through this, it can be clearly and simply established that this expropriation is not being carried out for the purpose of building facilities in the interest of the owners of the land plots in question, nor the residents of the Leposavic municipality, which in itself is illegitimate and contrary to the public, i.e. general interest," Todic emphasized in the letter.

How he assessed that the expropriation by the Government did not aim to improve the living standards of the residents of the municipality of Leposavic was obvious because the procedure was carried out at a time when the municipality of Leposavic was dissolved and did not have its own organs, which prevented it from actively participating in the public debate, making comments and filing lawsuits which was prescribed by Article 3 of the Law on Expropriation.

"With such discrimination of the municipality of Leposavic by the central authorities, it was denied the right to legal protection, which is guaranteed by Article 11 of the European Convention on Local Self-Government, which is directly applicable based on Article 123, paragraph 3 of the Constitution. I would recommend you compare the decisions made by the same Government and implemented in other parts of Kosovo, for example, Pristina, Podujevo, or Prizren, where the majority population is Albanian, and where the expropriation procedures were carried out in accordance with the law, with the method and procedure of illegal and violent expropriation in the municipalities of Zubin Potok and Leposavic, where the majority population is Serbian," Todic added.

He emphasized that it was very easy to establish that the law and the constitution were applied selectively and that there were obvious double standards.

"Unfortunately, this is not unknown to any of us in the North of Kosovo, but the question arises whether you, as representatives of the democratic and civilized world, support the policy of the current Government and Mr. Kurti that the rights prescribed by law do not apply to the Serbian community in Kosovo; the constitution and international conventions that promote and protect human rights, i.e. that they are second-class citizens for whom tribal rules are obviously valid, based on which their property is stolen," Todic said.

He reminded in the letter that the rule of law, as one of the goals for which the missions he addressed all these years had been striving and which was a key element for the democratization of Kosovo on the path to EU membership, did not know double standards.

"It must be identical to everyone and in every case. The intention of additional militarization of northern Kosovo, hidden under the alleged cloak of fighting crime through the alleged expropriation, i.e. the classic usurpation of private property, causes additional unrest among the already worried citizens of Leposavic and all other municipalities in North of Kosovo," Todic said.

According to him, real estate owners whose property had been affected by such illegal expropriation, "which aims to seize" their property, were forced to protest.

"They blocked the roads to their plots because they are concerned that by building police and military bases, they want to put pressure on them to leave Kosovo, as well as that the purpose of building such facilities is to intimidate and harass the remaining Serbs in Kosovo. Finally, we citizens from the community whose rights are directly affected by this illegal action of the central authorities in Pristina are forced to oppose this illegal and violent confiscation of private property of the municipality of Leposavic with all legal and other democratic means," Todic said.

He added that he expected those to whom he had addressed the letter, as a relevant and credible international factor, to "stand up for the defense and protection of civilizational and European values".

"And that is that the property right is an absolute right that is guaranteed by all international documents and that it can be limited for strictly prescribed legal reasons, and that it can exceptionally be taken away or limited, which is not the case when it comes to all expropriation procedures in the municipalities of Leposavic and Zubin Potok," Todic concluded.