Dragan Nikolić from Leposavić hopes that he will be able to return to the Kosovo Police, which, as he says, he left “under pressure” in November 2022 after two decades of work in this institution.
“The news that we had to leave the institutions then hit me hard, even today I can’t agree with that,” says Nikolić for Radio Free Europe (REL).
Now, after the request of the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, that the Serbs return to the institutions of Kosovo, Dragan says that he feels “betrayed and used”.
The resignation of hundreds of Serbs from institutions in northern Kosovo was initiated by Serb List – the largest party of Serbs in Kosovo, which has the support of Belgrade – due to the effort of the Government of Kosovo to remove from use the license plates of vehicles issued by Serbia with the names of the cities of Kosovo.
This collective resignation from Kosovo’s institutions, including the Police and judicial bodies, was supported by official Belgrade, providing monthly compensations to all those who “became unemployed”. Multiple crises followed in the north, with the situation culminating on 24 September 2023 when an armed group of Serbs attacked the police in Banjska near Zvecan, killing a policeman. Since then, the Kosovo authorities have closed several Serbian institutions that operated in the north of the country under the Serbian system.
On September 13, Vučić demanded the return of Serbs to the Kosovo Police and judicial bodies, as well as the holding of early elections in the four municipalities in the north, so that Serbs come to head them.
“Victims of pressure and politics”
Dragan Nikolić was one of four Kosovo Serbs that Serbian authorities arrested in April 2023, accusing them of being part of an “organized criminal group that aimed at a violent change of power, namely the overthrow of the constitutional order of the Republic of Serbia in the north of Kosovo”.
He was released due to lack of evidence and in the meantime started working as a driver in the Ministry for Communities and Return in the Government of Kosovo. However, he still hopes that he will be able to be a policeman again.
He adds that his colleagues also want to return to the Kosovo Police, and considers that the Serbs in Kosovo are “victims of someone’s pressure and politics”.
What else did Vučić warn or ask for?
The authorities of Kosovo since the beginning of 2024 have closed several institutions of Serbia, on the grounds that their operation violates the constitutionality of Kosovo. Some of them are: Temporary Municipal Bodies, Pension and Invalid Insurance Fund, Postal Savings Bank and the offices of the Post of Serbia in the north of Kosovo.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said on September 13, among other things, that around 5,800 workers of closed Serbian institutions in Kosovo will continue to receive their salaries regularly and warned of a possible increase.
He declared that the Serbian institutions in Kosovo “will not be extinguished, nor will they be closed”, but that “in order to mitigate the unilateral and uncoordinated actions of the Kosovar regime”, in Rudnica and Ribaric in Serbia, near the border with Kosovo, an office will be opened where Serbs will have access to social protection services and will be offered state and administrative services that, according to him, are essential for citizens.
Also, one of the measures is that the territory of Kosovo will be declared a “special area for social protection”, which will ensure financial assistance for unemployed Serbs. Serbia does not recognize the independence of Kosovo, which was declared in 2008.
The President of Serbia on September 13 also announced new investments from Belgrade in Kosovo, worth tens of millions of euros. Serbia has allocated about 140 million euros for Kosovo from its budget for 2024, which is about 11 million euros more than in 2023.
“Money cannot compensate us for the damage”
Zdravko from Leposavić says that the measures and demands presented by the president of Serbia are unrealistic and that money cannot compensate for the “damage” caused to the members of the Serbian community.
By “damage” he means the closure of Serbian institutions in Kosovo and the coming to power of Albanian mayors in the four municipalities in the north, after the Serbs boycotted the elections, again at the call of the Serb List.
“This is like when you throw the ball at the wall and it bounces back”, says Zdravko for REL.
For Goran Milenković, a political activist from Leposavić, these measures and demands are “misuse of the people and deception of public opinion.”
“All this is a fraud, in which no one believes anymore”, he adds, expressing his belief that all recent events are “part of an agreement” between Pristina and Belgrade, for the north to be fully integrated into the Kosovo system.
