Serbia's “List”, Vuciq: Unless you race on a list you won't have official Belgrade support

“We will go out (in Kosovo's local elections) as united because those who are not united in Kosovo and who are not behind the Serbian List will hardly get the trust of the people. You must take faith on the basis of unity and unity and not on the basis of the collapse of what preserves you and preserves your identity and survival in Kosovo”, Vuciq has said.

This statement by Serbian President Vuciq comes after Branimir Stojanovic, former deputy prime minister of Kosovo and former member of the main Kosovo Serb party, the Serbian List, has decided to run in the 17 October local elections in Kosovo, as an independent candidate for mayor of Gracanica, this predominantly Serb municipality, in the vicinity of Pristina.

The Serbian list now accuses him of “partitioning” of the Serbian people in Kosovo, while the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia has earlier sent orders that only Serbian List candidates will have the support of official Belgrade and Serbia's state.

The recogniser of political developments in Kosovo, Rangil Nojik, in a statement to Radio Free Europe, says that sooner or later, he expected a split within the Serbian List. But, as he points out, Belgrade's official reaction to Branimir Stojanovic's candidacy is unprecedented.

“I think it is not fair that people be divided in such a way, especially in the situation in which Serbs are found in Kosovo. They are practically dividing them into patriots and those who are enemies (of Serbia), which is unprecedented and inaccurate”, Nokik points out.

He also emphasises that, according to his sources, now and for some time, there has been dissatisfaction within the Serbian List, and that is why “Belgrade is trying to satisfy them maximum”.

“gives them functions, specific competencies and so on. Then they keep silent - that is, they do not express their anger and discontent publicly”, says Nojik and claims that this is the moment when that discontent reached its climax.

Serbia's “List behaves the way it is, because everyone in it has received enormous material, financial and in any other way... But the frustration shown in the people shows that they (Serbian List) have no credibility to approach the people to explain how they live well and how the Serbian List provided them this or that”, says Nokjic.

Furthermore, most Serbian List officials have at least one job in the Kosovo system and one in the Serbian system, and therefore have double salaries.

Will there be changes in Gracanica?

Dusan Janjic of the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade considers that the Serbian List may be seriously endangered in Gracanica, considering that Branimir Stojanovic has been one of the founders of that party.

“This is a really serious challenge for the Serbian List, because (Branimir) Stojanovic could get a large number of votes. This does not mean that he will take power, but it may be a binding button for other people who are not on the Serbian List”, Janjic considers.

He also estimates that Branimir Stojanovic's candidacy as an independent candidate in the upcoming local elections is a good thing for the Serb community in Kosovo.

At this moment, Janjic further says, messages coming from the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia are not that important because she “beats monopoly on Serbs”.

The “Autorities in Belgrade decide who the candidate will be, and they say so openly, even threatening ahead. In general, that policy is bad. Putting all the arguments into a pile, or as the people say, all the eggs in a basket, it's not good”, praised Janjiq.

How did all of this begin, and what is contrary?

Branimir Stojanovic has said that Serbian unity doesn't make any sense if this unity should be just purpose and not with it, to become something.

He said this in a speech to the media on 16 August, after presenting his candidacy to the Kosovo Central Election Commission for participation in the upcoming local elections, scheduled for 17 October.

Stojanovic, has decided this time to run in local elections as an independent candidate for mayor of Gracanica, this predominantly Serb municipality, because he is disappointed with the decision of Serbian List, the main Serbian party in Kosovo and has the official Belgrade support, to nominated Lilana Shubariqi for mayor of Gracanica.

He has stressed that there is nothing personal against Lilana Shubariqi, but that she is not known for the natives of the Gracanica municipality.

Later, on August 17th, the Serbian List held a media conference attended by Lilana Shubariq herself. When journalists asked the latter to be introduced to the public, Serbian List Chairman Goran Rakic said that this was not possible because the election campaign has not yet begun.

He just said briefly that Lilana Shubariq is a respected woman and professor at the North Mitrovica Medical Faculty, which functions in Serbia's educational system.

At the same press conference, which was called because of Branimir Stojanovic's candidacy as an independent candidate, Serbian List Chairman Goran Rakic, did not want to answer journalists' questions, but after his statement, he abandoned the space where the conference was held.

Who's Branimir Stojanovic?

Branimir Stojanovic from Gracanica, in the 2013 local elections, was elected to head of the Gracanica municipality under the Serbian List. At the end of 2014, it was appointed to Kosovo deputy prime minister as part of the Serbian List, while later also a state secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture in Serbia's Government.

In recent years, he was chairman of the interim body of the Suhareka municipality, this parallel structure that functions within Serbia's system. But, as Stojanovic himself announced, on August 17th, he resigned.

Temporary municipal organs in Kosovo function according to the Serbian system, meanwhile, heads are appointed by the Government of Serbia.

Branimir Stojanovic now emphasises that Gracanica's candidate for chairmanship, under the Serbian List, has been appointed by Kosovo Constitutional Court Judge Radomir Laban.

“A man who, according to his work description, must not deal with politics, but who, in various ways, abused his position, personal recognition with certain people managed to impose and now determines who will be the mayoral candidate of Gracanica, in the framework of the Serbian List”, Stojanovic said.

Harsh responses to Stojanovic's candidacy

Branimir Stojanovic has declined to issue a statement to Radio Free Europe, with the reasoning that no election campaigns have yet to begin, and that for a time, he will not issue statements to the media.

However, at the press conference, on 16 August, he said his candidacy for the mayor of Gracanica would not undermine the unity of Serbs, “but, we would grant people the right to express what they think”.

“Many people are disappointed, many people will be able to say in the elections what they think about the way that today candidates competing near the Serbian List” have said Stojanovic and added that the Serbian List, in recent years, “has neglected its structure and created some gray enzymes, such as Radomir Laban, who has the authority and the right to determine, which would not have to do”.

On the other hand, Serbian List Chairman Goran Rakic on August 17th accused Branimir Stojanovic of noting his target in front of Radomir Laban.

“A Serb, a member of our associate, has attacked the only Serb member, the judge at the Constitutional Court of Kosovo. The question is why Bane (Branimir) Stojanovic did this? What is the interest (of him) that man is no longer the Serbian representative, or judge of the Constitutional Court, while we know that the court has returned 24 hectares of land to the Decani Monastery”, Rakiq stressed.

Even so, Radomir Lyban was not a judge of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo when the decision, which 24 hectares of land belong to the Decani Monastery, was made in 2016 by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo.

Radomir Lyban became the judge of the Constitutional Court of Kosovo two years later.

Serbian List Chairman Goran Rakic denied Branimir Stojanovic's claims that Radomir Luban is the one who decides who will be the mayoral candidate from the Serbian List, stressing that the party itself does this in consultation with official Belgrade.

Towards Branimir Stojanovic's candidacy for mayor of Gracanica, he also reacted through a communique as well as the deputy chairman of the Serbian List, Igor Sim enemies, claiming that <x0-seconds and wild personal ambition defeated former Serbian List member”.

“Stonovic, driven by personal futility, unfortunately failed to test loyalty to the idea of Serbian unity, demonstrated that he is not a team player and that he is not willing to accept the need for continued changes within the” system, Igor Simu said.

To this statement, through a post in his Facebook account, Branimir Stojanovic responded, who said that because of such response, he decided to run for the mayor of Gracanica.

If I were an opportunist, maybe I'd be sitting in one of your places right now. I have never betrayed anyone, meanwhile you have a long list of treason and political opportunism. Because you didn't want to hear the arguments inside the house rationally, now you're going to listen publicly to”, Stojanovic wrote.

He has stressed that he resigns from office in the Suhareka interim body, addressing his former colleagues in the Serbian List that “you cannot count salaries and privileges”.

Who is Radomir Lyban?

Radomir Lyban, whom Branimir Stojanovic accuses of having the key word within the Serbian List, did not respond to radio calls and messages of Free Europe.

Since August 2018, Ljubljana has been judge at the Kosovo Constitutional Court. According to the Constitutional Court's official website, in the period from 2011 to 2018, Ljubljana was a senior legal adviser at the Constitutional Court of Kosovo.

Kosovo Constitutional Court Judge Radomir Laban (second from left) during taking the oath in 2018.

Kosovo's Constitutional Court consists of nine judges and based on the Constitutional Court and Law, they must be distinguished lawyers with a higher moral character, with at least 10 years of professional experience, as well as excellent professional reputation.

Radomir Lyban was one of the most numerous candidates for the Kosovo Constitutional Court judges, and had the support of the Serbian List. On the eve of Radomir Lyban's appointment as judge at the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, then President Hashim Thaci requested additional verification, due to his suspicious past. Eventually, however, he was elected to judge a nine - year term.

Otherwise, Ljubljana has been sentenced to six years in prison in Serbia because it was part of the so-called <x0-mefia”, a group of suspects for bribery and bribery actions, abuse of official position and forging documents.

Radio Free Europe has reported earlier that Laban was on the run from justice in Serbia since 2011. His name has been on Serbian arrest warrant since 2012, while he has been on Interpol's warrant since 2014.

Regarding Branimir Stojanovic's candidacy for chairman of Gracanica, the director of the Office for Kosovo in Serbia, Petar Petkovic, has spoken. He said that “the candidacy of political opportunist Branimir Stojanovic, who will compete against the Serbian List in the local elections in Gracanica, is direct support for Serbia's enemies, those working against Serbs and Serb unity in Kosovo”.

“Therefore, one more time, we point out that only Serbian List candidates have the backing of Serbia's official and state Belgrade”, Petkovic stressed.

Serb politicians murders after local elections

Political development acquaintance Rangjel Nojrik, in a statement to Radio Free Europe, has recalled the 2017 elections, “when Olliver Ivanovic, within the framework of the SDP (Liri, Democracy, Justice) was the serious countercontinent of the Serbian List”.

“may not be an adequate comparison, but Olliver Ivanovic was a major problem for the Serbian List. I repeat once again, I don't want to compare how the situation with Olliver ended, now it's impossible for something like that to happen again, but concern is here”, says Nojrik.

Olliver Ivanovic was killed in January 2018, just months after the local elections in Kosovo, in which he was the bearer of the “Liri, Democracy, Justice Oliver Ivanoviq” list.
During the pre-election campaign for those local elections, which were held in November 2017, four candidates for assemblyists withdrew from his list because of intimidation, while Ivanovics was burned in northern Mitrovica.

At the time, with 1.051 votes, he won a seat in the Communist Assembly in northern Mitrovica.

Also, early in 2014, Ivanovic was one of the candidates for North Mitrovica chairman when he was arrested under suspicion of committing war crimes against Kosovo Albanian civilians during 1999 and 2000. In 2016 he was sentenced to nine years in prison, and later the Court of Appeals of Kosovo ordered the retrial in February 2017. In April of that year, house arrest was lifted and allowed to be protected in freedom.

On the same date that Oliver Ivanov was killed on January 16th, but four years ago (in 2014), Dimitrije Yanijevic, who participated in the 2013 local elections under the Independent Liberal Party, was also killed in northern Mitrovica. These were the first local elections to be organised according to the Kosovo system in four Serb majority municipalities in northern Kosovo.

In 2013, with the support of official Belgrade, the Serbian List was formed. Since then, it is the main Kosovo Serb party, which in all local and parliamentary elections, has won about 90 per cent of voters' votes from the Serb community's ranks.

In the last parliamentary elections, the Serbian List won the ten seats guaranteed for the Serb community in the Kosovo Assembly. Also, the ten Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo are led by the Serbian List.