Vujinovic: Last May's protests by Serbs in the north were their civil right

A year after the protests and unrest in the municipality of Zvecan, and the rebellion of citizens in Leposavic and Zubin Potok due to the incursion of special police forces and the entry of newly elected Albanian mayors into municipal buildings, security studies researcher Nikola Vujinovic assesses that the situation is worse now than it was then, and he says that the democratic processes have been completely suspended.

"You can see the behavior of these mayors. According to European standards, in predominantly minority municipalities, you cannot erase Cyrillic script or change the names of villages and towns, but that is what the representatives of these municipalities are doing. Violence against the Serbian community has now become individualized as people are literally being targeted by their names, with intrusions into their yards and businesses," Vujinovic notes.

He says that last May's protests by Serbs were their civil right.

"People have the right to protest, this is something that Western Europe promotes as its value, and the soldiers who protected the municipal buildings promote these values. On the other hand, it also depicted the Kosovo state or quasi-state, that is, an undemocratic, autocratic state, and the hypocrisy of the international community. None of this would have happened if it hadn't been approved by the international community. The most dreadful aspect regarding the injured KFOR soldiers is the fact that their commanders allowed it all to happen, leading to their injuries, and no one among them was held accountable," our interlocutor emphasizes.

The resistance shown by the Serbs, he says, was an image of the Serbian struggle.

"Serbs do not want to leave peacefully, and it is a political right for the people living in a certain community to have the right to choose their representatives. If they do not have that right, then it is not a democracy. On the other hand, I believe this was one in a series of events that strengthened the community to fight. We understand from Belgrade, and even more so the people living in Kosovo and Metohija, that they have reached a breaking point and that there is no turning back," Vujinovic says.

He observes that such situations did not occur during previous governments in Kosovo, which, he says, speaks volumes about Albin Kurti's government as well as the hypocrisy of the international community.

"I don't know whose influence this is, but Kurti, being the most democratic of all Albanian leaders, is also the most radical. It is also about the hypocrisy of the international community. You have clear jurisdiction and clear procedures on how that jurisdiction should be implemented, but you do not implement it and pretend it does not concern you. This is hypocrisy, plain and simple," Vujinovic states.

On this day a year ago, in front of the Zvecan municipality, three Serbs and about 30 KFOR members were seriously injured during the unrest.