New protest over the arrest of Serbs in Gracanica; Elek: Support for colleagues, truth, and justice

Employees of healthcare and educational institutions in Gracanica and surrounding areas gathered again today in support of the directors of those institutions who were arrested last week. The President of the Serb List and Director of the Clinical Hospital Center Kosovska Mitrovica, Zlatan Elek, called for the detained Serbs to be released, stressing that the gathering was sending support to their colleagues, truth, and justice.

The workers of the Pristina Clinical Hospital Center with temporary headquarters in Gracanica were joined at the gathering by Serb List president Zlatan Elek with part of the staff of the Clinical Hospital Center Kosovska Mitrovica, as well as Serb List officials Igor Simic and Srdjan Popovic, and the mayor of Gracanica, Novak Zivic.

Serb List president Zlatan Elek emphasized that he came to Gracanica today not as a party leader, but above all as a colleague, to support the arrested doctors and education workers who are essential to the Serbian people.

“Today protests are being held in front of all educational and healthcare institutions functioning within the system of the Republic of Serbia. I am addressing you here today not only as the president of the Serb List, but as a human being and a colleague who gives full support to all unjustly arrested colleagues, doctors who are desperately needed by this people, as well as education workers, that is, directors of educational institutions. It is unbelievable that such things are happening in the 21st century, but we are used to such a pattern from the authorities in Pristina who, together with certain satellites who unfortunately bear Serbian first and last names, are trying to spread fear and unrest among citizens in central Kosovo,” Elek said.

He pointed out that the silence of the international community is worrying.

“This is not only support for our colleagues, this is support for truth and justice. And truth and justice are only one thing – that they were unjustly arrested and that they work in a completely different system that has nothing to do with the Kosovo judiciary or the Kosovo system,” Elek stated clearly.

He told his compatriots that unity is desperately needed.

“Today it is essential that we remain united, cohesive, and politically wise, because only united and cohesive, with the help of the state of Serbia, can we survive and remain in these areas,” Elek said.

He admitted that expectations from the international community are not high.

“The international factor is monitoring the situation, but you know as well as I do what they have undertaken… So, unfortunately, our expectations from the international community are not high,” Elek said.

He conveyed that so far only lawyers had been allowed to visit the detainees and repeated that the protests would continue until all of them are released.

“I think that today or tomorrow visits by close family members will be allowed. Political actors whose campaign is now beginning are not allowed access to such premises, so we are banned as well. The protests will continue, and all healthcare workers from Kosovo and Metohija will join the employees in Gracanica until the final goal is achieved – the release of the unjustly arrested,” Elek concluded.

Serb List official Igor Simic stated that the lawyers are today submitting an appeal to the Court of Appeals against the detention ruling, stressing that this is a prearranged political scenario.

“The lawyers of the unjustifiably arrested Serbs are today in the process of filing an appeal against the detention order. This is a prearranged political scenario, and proof of that is that in the detention ruling we found entire paragraphs left over from a previous case mentioning some Labinot, I will not even mention the surname… So literally a ‘copy-paste’ process in which they were simply rushing to unjustifiably detain these people and throw them into their dungeons as quickly as possible,” Simic said.

He stated that the lawyers were even given a detention document mentioning a man who had nothing to do with this case.

“That is apparently someone previously arrested in another case. This confirms that everything was prepared and that this is being done with the intention of keeping these people detained as long as possible, while at the same time putting pressure on everyone, not only education and healthcare workers, but all Serbs for whom Belgrade is the capital and who know very well that without healthcare and education there is no survival for us in these areas,” Simic said.

According to him, the institutions whose directors are in detention are facing legal challenges as well as operational difficulties.

“These people sign important documents for all employees. Their associates and colleagues, as we have heard, are trying to ensure that everything proceeds in the best possible order, but even in a household, when the head of the house is absent, it is difficult for everyone. The institutions are, of course, functioning. As you can see, these people are providing healthcare services, teachers are educating our children, but the fact is that all of this comes with certain challenges,” Simic stated.

He said that the Serbian state is involved in the case and is taking care not only of the detainees and their families, but of every Serb in Kosovo.

“The state authorities of the Republic of Serbia have been involved in the entire process from the moment news appeared about the possible detentions. The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education informed all international healthcare and education worker organizations about this case. This is an unprecedented case on European soil in recent decades. And constant pressure is being exerted. Some things are part of diplomacy and we cannot present them publicly, but I want to assure everyone, and I also want the families of all those arrested to know, that the state of Serbia firmly stands with all these people and their families, as well as with every Serb in these areas. That is proven by new jobs, every piece of equipment that has been purchased and serves this people and enables better work for all our employees,” Simic said.

He added that he expects international representatives to become actively involved in the case rather than issue “anemic statements.”

“In this case even that was absent. It is up to us to fight, but now I also want to say publicly: we are all absolutely aware that this can most mildly be described as an occupation. Someone believes they have the right to resolve these matters by force simply because they carry a pistol on their belt. To arrest innocent doctors, professors and teachers. I think that is proof of arrogance and the violation of elementary rights, not only of the Serbian people, but of the entire legal order that the regime in Pristina claims to uphold and which international representatives often praise in their statements,” Simic said.

Support gatherings for the arrested Serbs have been taking place since Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Basic Court in Pristina ordered detention of up to 30 days for seven arrested directors of Serbian educational and healthcare institutions from the municipality of Gracanica, under charges of the criminal offense of “violating the free will of voters.”

Reacting to the court’s decision, the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, pointed out that the detention of the seven Serbs was ordered by direct instruction from Albin Kurti, with the assistance of Nenad Rasic.