Eurasia Press & News
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani has announced institutional decisions against the Serb List, a party whose vice president Milan Radoicic is linked by Pristina to the armed conflict in the northern Kosovo village of Banjska.
Osmani assessed that “after the terrorist act in Banjska, where Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku was heroically killed, it is undoubtedly clear that it was directed and organized by Belgrade, with the intention of destabilizing Kosovo and the entire region.” In this regard, she announced, since the Kosovo authorities announced that the Vice President of the Serbian List, Milan Radoicic, was the leader of the “terrorist group”, and that institutional decisions against the Serb List will soon be made.
Shortly after the statement of the Kosovo Assembly Speaker at the session attended by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, she adopted a resolution condemning the attack on the Kosovo Police on September 24 in Banja Luka and stating the need for an international investigation by Serbia and its role in this attack.
Kurti also demanded that “partner states” declare the organizations “Civil Defense” and “Northern Brigade” as terrorists. Let us remind that the government in Pristina declared these two groups terrorist in June, after which words of criticism could be heard from the side of the Serbs from the north of Kosovo and Metohija that these two organizations do not exist at all.
President Vučić himself spoke about the role of Milan Radoicic in sunday’s events, saying that he would have to explain some things before the investigative bodies of Serbia.
“Milan Radoicic never hid, he was not ashamed of his role. He will certainly respond to the call of the competent authorities. It is located on the territory of Serbia. He was not injured,” the wolf said.
Asked by reporters “who commands the people down stairs, do you know these people”, the president said – “how do I not know Milan Radoicic”, and then noted that he does not say that Radoicic is the commander of these people.
Given Osmani’s statement, which noted that sl vice president was “the leader of a terrorist organization”, the only question arises whether these “institutional measures” will mean declaring this parliamentary party, which is also in the majority of Serbian communities in power.
If Kosovo institutions actually determine that the Serb List is involved in terrorism, it will be declared unconstitutional, and individuals could be held accountable before judicial bodies, fatmir Sheholi, director of the NGO “Institute for Affirmation of Interethnic Relations”, from Pristina, told Danas.
However, he notes that a certain procedure is needed first and foremost.
“Namely, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo should gather evidence of terrorist actions of Srpska Lista and submit that evidence to the Basic Court in Pristina. The Basic Court then assesses how credible and accurate the evidence is, and then calls an official of the Serbian List to confront them with arguments. After that, the court makes a decision based on all the evidence and facts,” he said.
Speaking about the political part of Vjosa Osmani’s statement, Sheholi states that such things can be heard every day, i.e. that Osmani did not say anything new.
Milija Bisevac, leader of the Civic Initiative “Za Zubin Potok”, also states that this is not the first time that Pristina wants to ban the Serb List, stating that it does not represent Serbs and that it is disrupting the Constitution of Kosovo.
“Our civic initiative also believes that sl is not a legitimate representative of Serbs, that they have contributed to greater emigration of Serbs, through actions such as conducting poor social policy. In many ways, they have also ruined Serbia’s negotiating position. But if such a decision to declare srpska lista terrorist was actually made, I think it would be illegal. Although I am an opponent of the Serb List, I believe that pluralism should not be violated and that all citizens should be allowed free will and participation in the elections,” he said.
If the Kosovo government wanted to really challenge the work of the Serb List, it could have done so much earlier, but they were “informal coalition partners”.
“They could have investigated how SL spent money from the budget, whether it was reaching the citizens or remaining in the pockets of businessmen from the Serbian List. The audit from Pristina never came, they were silent at the time because they were informal coalition partners, as shown by the intercepted talks between Mimosa Kusari Ljilja from Vetevendosje and Slavko Simic from the Serbian List,” Bisevac said.
Radoicic was immediately after the events in Banja as the leader of a masked group, whose arrested members are being prosecuted by the Kosovo prosecutor’s office for terrorism and unconstitutional activities. Kosovo police also released a video from a drone, whose authenticity has not yet been confirmed, which allegedly dates back to Sunday and which, according to the KP, is located radoicic himself near the residences of the Banjska monastery.
Then, Kosovo Police Minister Xhelai Sveclja announced that radoicic’s documents were found in one of the vehicles found, a Mercedes brand with Belgrade plates, expressing suspicion that he was one of the leaders of the group.
The Serb List, although it resigned from the ruling coalition on November 5 last year, as well as local authorities in the north of Kosovo, has nine deputies in the Kosovo Assembly.
If it were actually declared a terrorist organization, the Serb List would thus be on the list with the above mentioned – “Civil Protection” and “Northern Brigade”.
In addition to allegations about the vice president of SL, Svečlja made other claims, such as that some of the attackers were “members of the Civil Protection”.
Members of this organization first appeared publicly in Kosovo and Metohija in 2011, and were recognizable by black T-shirts and the inscription “Civil Protection”. It was also striking their appearance in 2013 when elections were held for the first time in the north of Kosovo under the Kosovo system, the first since the signing of the Brussels Agreement, but the Kosovo police removed them.
According to kosovo authorities, members of the “Civil Protection” have erected the first barricades in the north, in order to prevent the government from Pristina from establishing power in the region.
For the first time, the public learned about the “North Brigade” or “Brigade North” when graffiti was told throughout the streets of Mitrovica that they were “ready” and “waiting”.
“Don’t worry! We’re here! We are waiting!”, streets and facades of the northern part of Kosovo were written in pattern. Later, they also said from graffiti that they were “growing day by day”, but even today it is not known who is behind this organization, i.e. whether it formally exists at all.
