Thousands of Kosovo Serbs protested on Friday against what they see as Pristina’s refusal to allow them to participate in the territory in the next Serbian elections while Belgrade has never recognized the independence of its former province.
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Since the deadly war between Kosovar Albanian separatists and Serbian forces in the late 1990s, members of the Serbian minority in the overwhelmingly Albanian territory have regularly taken part in Serbian elections at polling stations in Kosovo under the aegis of the OSCE and with its practical assistance. But presidential, legislative and local elections are scheduled for April 3 in Serbia and Pristina and Belgrade have not yet reached an agreement on the subject despite Western pressure. In Gracanica, a town with a Serb majority near Pristina, thousands of protesters gathered calmly to denounce “terror» imposed by the Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, accused of wanting the «kick out of Kosovo“.
Absence of agreement between the parties
“We refuse that anyone deprives us of our fundamental rights and makes us second-class citizens“, launched to the crowd Dalibor Jevtic, member of Srpska Lista, close to Belgrade. In Mitrovica, in the divided northern city, a thousand Serbs demanded that “Europe stop the harassment of Kurti“. The Kosovo government is demanding that Belgrade ask for permission to organize the vote on its territory, which it considers sovereign. What Serbia cannot do because it would be a recognition of the independence of Kosovo declared in 2008. The embassies of France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and the United States United this week in a statement regretted the lack of agreement between the parties, accusing Pristina of not “defend the principle of protecting the civil and political rights of all its citizens, including minorities“.
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Around 120,000 Serbs live in Kovoso, which has a population of 1.8 million. The Serbian Electoral Commission (RIK) announced on Thursday that Kosovo Serbs could vote in four towns in southern Serbia. A member of this commission, Vladimir Toderic, denounced the lack of political agreement on the subject, stressing that some voters would be forced to travel more than 120 kilometers to vote. “Someone passed on the hot potatoto the electoral commission, he said.
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