Vujinovic: Security situation in Kosovo deteriorated, Serbian community under greatest pressure

Security studies researcher Nikola Vujinovic said that security in Kosovo is endangered, given the rising number of murders, but also noted that there are protected individuals against whom the Kosovo Police does not “fight.” However, in his view, the Serbian community in Kosovo feels the greatest pressure when it comes to security.

“When we look at statistics on general crime in Kosovo and Metohija, it is actually declining. But the subjective feeling, above all within the Serbian political community, is negative. Serbian women, Serbian youth, we see they are under daily pressure not even from criminals, but from the Kosovo Police itself,” Vujinovic told Kosovo Online.

He emphasized that the main target of all groups in Kosovo is the Serbian community.

“This is part of a struggle, but it is not a struggle for a legal state or rule of law. It is a struggle for an ethnically pure Kosovo, especially in the north of Kosovo and Metohija. In other words, this is political violence against the Serbian community. We have the case of the village of Vuca, where children on a school trip were harassed by a Kosovo Police patrol armed with long guns. That is a blatant example of political violence,” he said.

However, he added that this summer saw a significant increase in the most serious crimes across Kosovo.

“We had cases in Gnjilane, Lipljan… Whether this is due to the ongoing economic or political crisis, I don’t know, but it is a fact. Last year, 17 people were killed across Kosovo and Metohija. In just the past few weeks, a quarter of that number has already been recorded. I expect the statistics will confirm that the numbers will be worse than before,” Vujinovic noted.

Regarding the murders in Gnjilane, where suspects have not yet been caught, Vujinovic believes that the fact one of them had close ties to Kosovo’s authorities shows that some individuals are protected.

“The case in Gnjilane is telling, where the killer had good connections both with the President of Kosovo and with the Government of Kosovo. That shows there are protected individuals and that various criminal groups have their own police, rather than the police fighting against criminal groups,” he concluded.