MP Muja list “ran gasoline on fire”

The ruling party's deputy, Vetevendosje Movement, wrote in his Facebook profile on December 22nd that there are several criminal groups “in Mitrovica that, according to him, “challenge both Kosovo citizens and the state of Kosovo”.

In addition, Muja mentioned several individuals, who he said stood behind barricades erected in the north, and added that he would recommend their “arrest”.

He also said that in Kosovo “there are no broad lists of people to be arrested”, so “sic propagand Serbia”.

Officials in Serbia, as well as those of the Serbian List -- the largest party of Serbs in Kosovo -- claim that Kosovo has “secret players for arresting and firing Serbs”, but does not bring any evidence of them.

Kosovo police and Kosovo Interior Minister Jedal Svecla rejected these statements.

Free Europe Radio made efforts to contact MP Muja to get a comment on his writing, but he did not respond to phone calls.

Declaration outside MP's competencies

Ehat Miftaraj, executive director of the Kosovo Institute for Justice (IKD), says official Belgrade, through various methods is destabilizing the situation in northern Kosovo. But, according to him, powers in Kosovo are divided and they must act according to the hierarchy.

“under no circumstances is dared for politicians to label specific persons, as those who should be arrested or prosecuted. This competence, this authorisation, belongs only to institutions that have a legal mandate. This leaves room and opportunity for misunderstandings, for interpretations, both from the Serbian side and from the states, which are not friends of the Republic of Kosovo. This is an amateur action, which should not have happened”, Miftaraj tells Radio Free Europe.

Political co-ordinator Artan Muhhaxhiri, professor of sociologisty at Pristina University, says MP Muja's post implies “political vulnerability”, which, according to him, “buron from populism”.

In the institutional sense, Mujadir says, such a statement should not be made at all, because it is beyond MP's competencies.

What's obvious is that this statement is populist, it's trying to escape the institutional path, which should be through prosecution and other security institutions. However, [it] only puts in public a list that can be misused if, eventually, something happens to those who are in person. So this is not the right way to deal with the crisis in the north”, says Muhramir for Radio Free Europe.

Free Europe Radio asked the Kosovo Prosecutor whether there is information about the activities of those who mention Muja and whether he will contact the MP himself to obtain information on his claims. But until the publication of this article, there was no answer.

Serbian officials' reactions

Following Muja's writing, Serbia's prime minister, Ana Brnabiq, said it is nothing new that “Pristina is making the Serb list for arrest” and that “the only difference is that this time it has made it public, even though it has officially denied”.

“object strongly to the persecution and targeting of all persons from the list mentioned, but also to all other persons who are not of Albanian nationality and who cannot achieve even basic human rights in Kosovo and Metohija”, Brnabiq said.

Towards MP Muja's writing, the Serbian List also reacted, which said that Vetevendosje Movement representative “has published another list for the persecution of Serbs from Kosovo”.

According to this party supported by official Belgrade, such statements “directly justify the existence of barricades and the peaceful resistance of the Serbian people”.

Groups of Serbian citizens in the north set up barricades since December 10th to oppose the arrest of a former Serb police officer by Kosovo Police.

Dejan Pantic was arrested under suspicion of attacking members of the Central Election Commission in the north.

Account Required

Ehat Miftaraj, from the IKD, says the claims of official Belgrade and Serbian List that there are lists for the arrest of Serbs in northern Kosovo, have been one of the reasons for the protest of some Serbian citizens, on December 22nd, in the village of Rudare in northern Kosovo.

At this rally, protesters, among other things, demanded the “withdrawal” of these supposed lists, as condition of removing barricades.

In this context, Miftaraj says, MP Muja “'s statement has thrown fire gasoline”.

He says Muja, as MP, has immunity from prosecution, but that in the concrete case, according to him, he would have to provide clarifications in the prosecutor.

If the same [Moja] has such information, in a normal state it would be necessary for the Special Prosecutor to invite him into an interview and he offers the evidence, which he offers in posting [on Facebook]. If they can't support with facts, then surely the prosecution can view this as a false announcement, which has caused judicial consequences”, Miftaraj says.

The international community, including the US and the EU, called several times for tensions in northern Kosovo to be resolved with dialogue.

Authorities in Kosovo said they have the capacity to remove barricades erected in the north, but that they have given time to the NATO mission, KFOR, to persuade the local community to remove them themselves.

KFOR did not respond to REL's interest if it plans any action in the north.

Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, said the barricades would leave when the Association of Serb majority municipalities in Kosovo is formed, which the official Pristina rejects.