Members of the families of those arrested from Pasjane: Kosovo's prisons are full of innocent Serbs, is this freedom?

At a large protest held today in Pasjane by residents of Serbian communities in Kosovo Pomoravlje due to the arrest of five Serbs, the family members of the arrested declared that their loved ones are innocent and demanded justice for all Serbs in Kosovo prisons.

Vasilije Stosic, the father of the arrested Milos Sosic, thanked all those present and emphasized that today support was sent from Pasjane not only for the five arrested individuals but for the entire Serbian people to ensure their survival in Kosovo.

"My son worked in the Kosovo Police for 24 years, he passed all checks, he was upright, but after so many years, the time comes for him to be deemed unsuitable, accused as a war criminal. That morning my son was at work, and when they brought him in, I knew nothing. I thought he had been killed... When I got up, the yard was full of police, as if he had killed the whole world, and he was their employee. I would not wish anyone to experience the same, to see their son being handcuffed while you, as a father, are powerless. Is this freedom and life? We are deprived of freedom," said Stosic.

Priest Jovan Cvetkovic, the son of the arrested Dragan Cvetkovic, stated that the recent arrests in Pasjane aim to intimidate the Serbs.

"Early at dawn on August 3rd, Kosovo police officers entered our homes, our lives, and our rights and freedom, without explanation, intending to scare us, to tell us that we do not belong here and that they do not want to see us here. But we were not scared; instead, we became even more encouraged. As one child said, they are not police officers but robbers," he said.

He directed a message to the international community.

"I ask them to stop the injustice because Kosovo's prisons are full of innocent people. Today we gathered to comfort our mothers, sisters, and children and to pray together to God for everyone," Cvetkovic said.

Srdjan Nicic, the son of the arrested Dragan Nicic, read verses from his poem written after his father's arrest, in which he called for an end to the mistreatment of Serbs.

The protest was attended by several thousand Serbs, who carried banners reading "They arrest us to expel all Serbs," "We demand that KFOR protect us," "Europe, why are you silent about the suffering of Serbs?"

Declaration of the Serbs from Kosovo Pomoravlje

At the end of the protest, the Serbs from Kosovo Pomoravlje issued a declaration.

"We, the Serbs from Kosovo Pomoravlje, express our outrage and concern over the arrests of our compatriots and neighbors Dragan Cvetkovic, Dragan Nicic, Milos Sosic, Slobodan Cvetkovic from Pasjane, and Nikola Stojanovic from Bosca. They were violently arrested without a court warrant, merely based on some list, threats, and blows early in the morning, with automatic weapons pointed at their family members. They were arrested 25 years after the war for alleged war crimes. These are people who have lived in Kosovo all along and have done nothing to anyone. Milos Sosic, an active member of the Kosovo Police, was admitted as the first Serb back in 2001 and passed all checks. Nikola Stojanovic was a member of the KBS, Slobodan Cvetkovic didn't serve in the army due to his vision, and Dragan Cvetkovic is 90% disabled from brutal wounding by terrorists at the Konculj crossing. None of these security checks mattered to the Kosovo police and judiciary.

They acted the same way in July 2023 when they arrested Zlatko Arsic, also a member of the Kosovo Police. All this shows that these arrests serve Pristina and the judiciary only to intimidate Serbs and spread panic to prompt their emigration, using war crimes investigations as an excuse. If they were genuinely concerned about investigating crimes, they would find and punish the perpetrators of countless terrorist attacks on Serbs in Cernica, the murderer of four-year-old Milos Petrovic, Tihomir Simjonovic, and Vojin Vasic, who were killed on May 28, 2000, in front of a store in Cernica. The terrorists who maimed Dragan Cvetkovic have not been punished, but he was arrested.

There are indications that Milos Sosic and Zlatko Arsic were arrested because, as police officers, they interfered with criminal circles, and these arrests for alleged war crimes are revenge for that. It is clear to any objective observer that the persecution Serbs endure from the Kosovo police and judiciary serves to frighten and drive people out of here. The regime in Pristina wants to show its electorate before the elections how tough it is on Serbs. We ask and appeal to the EU mission and EULEX, who came to Kosovo with the mandate to protect human rights and establish the rule of law, to fulfill that mandate. Above all, this means immediately stopping the fabricated criminal, but actually political, proceedings against Serbs and releasing our detained immediately. If they need to be tried, let them defend themselves in freedom, because they are not criminals but hosts who lived on their properties. If the EU and EULEX, for political reasons, do not want to antagonize Pristina and cannot stop them from violating human rights, then it is fair to inform us immediately, so we do not nurture false hopes but act accordingly. We still hope that the mission's mandate and the professional conscience of the EU mission members will protect our people from persecution," reads the declaration of the Serbs from Kosovo Pomoravlje.