Confirming: Opinion fraud by Kosovo, Serbian politicians

In the last 20 days, political officials from Kosovo and Serbia have been accusing each other of “lies against” and “spread dezinforms”, while opinion in both countries is warning that the other “papa” is violating the Brussels Agreement.

Such rhetoric is taking place at a time when tensions between Kosovo and Serbia have increased, as local Serbs in the majority Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo set up barricades on July 31st to prevent Kosovo authorities from implementing decisions to reregister vehicles at the RKS license plates and issue documents for the citizens of Serbia.

Meanwhile, Kosovo postponed implementing these decisions for 30 days, meanwhile, Serbs removed the barricades.

The two sides tried to reach an agreement in Brussels on these issues, under the dialogue for normalisation of relations, but without success. For now, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti is not giving up on the reciprocity policy, which for Serbia is unacceptable.

Radio Free Europe (REL) verified how accurate or based statements by Kosovo and Serbian officials were.

Doubts about the access/out document?

Goran Rakiq, chairman of the Serbian List, this Kosovo Serb leader, who has the backing of official Belgrade, at a media conference on 16 August, said the Kosovo Government's decision to issue documents for entry/result implies that Pristina wants to make Kosovo Serbs foreign and to ask “from their centuries-old hearth”.

At the same media conference, the director of the Office for Kosovo in Serbia's Government, Petar Petkov, said Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti “obliges Serbs in Kosovo to give up their state, from Serbian documents”. Similar messages were heard in almost every previous or later speech by senior Serbian officials.

Invalid

Launching the access/Out document is before used Brussels Free Movement Agreement in 2011 and replaces personal documents only temporarily, either until the citizen of Kosovo or Serbia stands on the territory of the other country.

The use of that document does not mean that someone has rejected his country's documents.

This document, aimed at maintaining the two countries' neutral stance on personal documents, Serbia has issued for any Kosovo citizen who enters Serbia's territory since 2011. However, Kosovo has not implemented it similarly, meanwhile, the current authorities claim that there has been no political will for such a thing so far.

How well does Kosovo protect minority rights?

At the media conference, following the Government's meeting on August 24th, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said the “Serbs in Kosovo live better than in Serbia, in the sense of state character”.

“Trust the Government of Kosovo, which is only respecting the Constitution and the laws of Kosovo, without discrimination, without discrimination on the basis of nationality or any other ground”, Kurti has said, answering one of the journalists' questions from the Serb community's ranks.

Invalid

In the preliminary period, international human rights organisations have called on Kosovo to respect minority rights more.

In the European Commission's report on Kosovo's progress for 2021, authorities in Pristina reportedly should do more for “effectively guaranteed minority rights”.

Also, the international community and nongovernmental organisations, years ago, call on the Kosovo government to carry out the Constitutional Court's decision of 2018, under which it was concluded that 24 hectares of land and forest belong to the Decani Orthodox Monastery in western Kosovo.

The Constitutional Court's amendments are to the firm and binding form of all sides, but according to the assessment of Kosovo's prime minister, the monastery's decision is based on “the discriminatory policy of the Government of Serbia from 1997”, when the ground, which is disputed, was donated to the monastery.

Can Kosovo Police Go North?

Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, said on August 23rd that there would be no tensions in Kosovo if Pristina were to stick to the agreement that Kosovo's <x0 special forces can only cross to the north with the consent of NATO and the heads of four municipalities where Serbs live”.

Invalid

The opinion has no knowledge of any agreement that Kosovo Special Forces are not allowed to go to Serb majority municipalities in northern Kosovo without NATO's approval.

There are only letters exchanged, in 2013, between then Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and former NATO Secretary General Andreas Fogh Rasmussen.
At the time, Thaci promised that the Kosovo Security Force would not go north of the country without the consent of the military peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR.

Earlier, NATO has confirmed on The REL that “any movement of the Kosovo Security Force in the northern part of Kosovo requires preliminary announcement and consent of KFOR Commander”.

But it is not for the Kosovo Police or the Special Unit of the Kosovo Police.

When were KS plates removed, and why?

Polemica has also had to use RKS (Kosovo Republic) plates or KS (state on status) for cars.

First, Serbia's President Aleksandar Vuciq stressed on July 31st that “Pristina wants to say there are no more KS plates, which Belgrade accepts, but only RKS license plates, to show that they are sovereign state”.

Invalid

The KS plates, which were status neutral, have not been issued since September 2021, so they virtually do not exist now. The 2011 freedom of movement agreement envisions only license plates used in Kosovo, or KSF (Kosovo), or KS (Kosovo, status neutral).

“As a temporary measure, authorities in Kosovo will extend the validity of the KS plates for an initial period of five years, after which the two sides will reconsider the issue (with EU mediation, if necessary)”, the agreement said.

Both sides agreed on the validity of the KS license plates in 2016, which means that the “afate of their use” expired in 2021.

Meanwhile, on 24 August, the director of the Office for Kosovo in Serbia's Government, Petar Petkov, has commented on Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti's statement, which has said that KS (neutral to status) plates have been valid until September 2021.

“Kurti showed that he doesn't know what he's talking about, and he got caught up with another big lie, because those plates were illegally and unilaterally canceled by Pristina on September 17th 2020, that's the year before the deadline was passed, after which this topic was scheduled to be discussed and the solution” required, Petkov said.

Invalid

Kosovo's Ministry of Internal Affairs, in 2020, has cancelled the administrative instruction for registration of vehicles with KS license plates so that they are no longer issued by September 2021.

All those who were then registered with KS license plates could direct it to the census, so until September 2021, when Kosovo authorities began to issue only RKS (Kosovo Republic).

What exactly has the Constitutional Court of Kosovo said about the Association of Serb majority municipalities?

Serbian officials, in many public appearances over the past months, have said Albin Kurti's policy is based on the rejection of the Association of Serb majority municipalities the agreement has been reached in Brussels.

On 15 August, Kosovo Interior Affairs Minister Jedal Svecla told Kosovo public servant in the Serbian language (RTK) that the Constitutional Court has clearly said that association is not in harmony with Kosovo laws.

There cannot be an unconstitutional creature, a creature that is state within the state. We will not allow Kosovo to be a dysfunctional state”, Svecla said, all the time referring to the Kosovo Constitutional Court's decision.

Invalid

The formation of the Serb majority municipalities' Association is envisioned with the first Brussels Agreement in 2013, which was reached in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia. Specific details were further harmonised with general principles/elements in 2015.

However, Kosovo's Constitutional Court in December 2015 found that the principles of Association are not fully harmonised with the Constitution of Kosovo, but, as added by this court, they could be harmonised with the legal act of the Government of Kosovo and the statute.

The Constitutional Court of Kosovo has never declared that the Association of Serb majority municipalities should never be formed, as some Kosovo officials often publicly declare.

Do Kosovo Police Arrest Only Serbs?

The chairman of the Shrpca municipality, Dalibor Yevtic, said Kosovo authorities will always find ways to present Serbs as criminals and, as an example, cited the fight against illegal construction in his municipality.

And that way they're gonna get us a couple of liters of milk from Serbia or a relative invented regarding cameras for spying, or the fight against illegal construction, and here's the miracle in a Serb environment in Kosovo! ”

Invalid

Within the framework of shares that connect with the case “Brezovica”, which began to be implemented in December last year, dozens of local officials were arrested, but several officials from the Ministry of Environment, Space Planning and Infrastructure have also been arrested.

Among them are Kosovo Albanians, and all are accused of misusing the official position, taking and bribery for issuing construction permits in Brezovica, in the Shtrpce municipality, south of Kosovo.

So far, arrests have been carried out at the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, but also at other locations in Pristina, Ferizaj and Shtrpca.

In the same operation last year, Bratislav Nikolic, former head of the Shrpca municipality and official of the Serbian List, was arrested.

The role of journalists is “key in crisis moments”

Just because of “dezinforms on the ground”, US Ambassador to Kosovo Jeffrey Hovenier has asked the Kosovo government to postpone implementing the decisions for license plates and documents.

“We hope we will co-operate with the Government and colleagues from the European Union to ensure that the agreements are better understood and thus reduce tensions”, Havenier said earlier.

Kosari, a media rights lawyer from Pristina and legal advisers at the European Centre for Media and Media Freedom, stresses that spreading false information is very dangerous and that politicians' rhetoric could easily further increase tensions between Kosovo and Serbia.

“Politicians do this for political gain and not because they care for their voters. In such situations, the role of journalists becomes crucial. It is the journalist's responsibility to ensure that he does not offer a platform for false news, in order to check the facts before publication, by contacting various sources, by looking at documents, by avoiding the articles "soup-passe," by respecting ethical obligations and asking for an unreserved pardon when he makes a mistake”, says Kusari for Radio Free Europe.

She adds that the Kosovo government should be more transparent in working and co-operating with journalists so that citizens, including those of the Serb community, should be informed over time about the plans.

Radio Television Director Mir from Leposaviqi, north of Kosovo, Nenad Radosavlevlik, considers that the Belgrade of “menagon” media in Serbia, which are mostly followed by members of the Serb community in Kosovo and adds that such media serve as “alparancing and disturbing propaganda of opinion”.

It is unfortunate that in the past period, we did not in any way print the activity of propaganda speakers, nor create a healthy climate in the media that does not belong to the regime. It's a shame, because in this situation the damage, besides power-bearer Aleksandar Vuciq, can also be created because of the media, which through propaganda machines will develop a sense of panic. This panic could lead to escalation”, Radosavljevic says.

In the latest report of the World Media Freedom Index, published by Reporters Without Borders, between this year, it is found that the situation in the Western Balkans has not drastically changed compared to the previous report.

Besides Serbia and Kosovo, other countries in the region are listed as problematic when it comes to media freedom. / REL