Which Serbs from Kosovo are arresting Serbia?

With those words, Ivana Nikolic from Leposaviqi, the predominantly Serb municipality in northern Kosovo, comments on the arrest of her husband, Dragan, by Serbian security authorities on 10 April at the Jarinje border crossing.

Dragan is accused of “associating against Serbia's constitutional order” and “calling for violent change of Serbia's constitutional order”.

Otherwise, Dragan Nikolic has resigned from Kosovo Police in early November last year, at the request of the Serbian List. This party, the largest of Kosovo Serbs, has the backing of Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) of Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq.

In addition to political representatives and police officers, the staff of Kosovo's judicial system and those of the local administration have resigned. The resignation was the Kosovo Government's decision to implement the process of reregistering from Serbian plates to those RKS.

In addition to Dragan Nikolic, two Serbs from northern Kosovo have been arrested for the same allegations in recent days with the initial D.T. and S.P.

Serbian authorities have not been promoted in connection with these arrests, but the arrest lawyers have been speaking about it.

What preceded arrest?

In a proposal for Radio Free Europe, Ivana Nikolic says the arrest of her husband is “the rooting of injustice” that was made after their house burned last September “because they had re-registered the car with RKS (Kosovo Republic)”.

Later, according to her, the monetary compensation of her husband, which Belgrade gives to all who have left Kosovo institutions, has been cancelled.

I don't know what the purpose is. Is the goal to expel our family from Kosovo territory? This (the arrest) is a terrible act”, it says of the REL.

It cites its political involvement in the opposition Kosovo Serb Party “as “mative for “the execution of its family”. She was on the list of this party for Asambliste in the Leposaviqi municipality's Assembly in the Kosovo local elections on 23 April.

However, the leader of PKS, Aleksandar Jablanovic, withdrew three days before the elections and called on his supporters to boycott the process.

These elections were also boycotted by the Serbian List, for which there was Belgrade's support.

“just let us calm”

Ivana Nikolic flatly claims that her husband has no link to the charges brought against him by Serbian authorities and believes it is about a fabricated “rast.

“I hope that our authorities (in Serbia) will see and hear this, let us live quietly because we are not touching anyone, we are not hurting anyone”, she says.

Ivana underlines that despite everything, she will not leave Kosovo.

I will continue to fight for my family's survival... I think together with our lawyer we're going out of all this as a winner, with a big victory of”, Ivana says.

What does Dragan Nikolic's lawyer say?

Ivan Niniq, lawyer for arrested Dragan Nikolic, says on 10 April his client from the Jarinje crossing has been sent to the Terrorism Prevention Service by two masked persons.

After questioning, he was sent to the High Public Prosecutor in Belgrade, which has assigned him the 30-day detention measure.

The prison sentence in Serbia for crimes for which he is accused of plotting Serbia's constitutional order and calling for violent change in Serbia's constitutional order is ten years.

Among other things, according to the lawyer, Dragan Nikolic is accused of being a member of an organised criminal group of four or five other persons of Serbian nationality and two of the Albanian nationality, whose purpose was “violent construction of power, i.e. The overthrow of the constitutional order of the Republic of Serbia in northern Kosovo”.

“Concretically, that he distributed propagandistic material, where Serbs are invited to re-register their motor cars with Kosovo license plates or to leave if they don't... He's been causing conflict because he's been causing trouble. That all these activities have resulted from the burning of Serbian-owned cars. That certain persons have been arrested because of those arsonists, and that my supposedly client Dragan Nikolic, as well as other members of that group, have given the identity information to Kosovo police forces”, says lawyer Niniq.

He emphasises that Nikolic is charged that “has contributed to the wounding of several persons of Serbian nationalism in northern Kosovo in January of this year”.

On January 23rd, Kosovo Police reported that in the vicinity of Leposaviqi was shot in a car that has not stopped for control and that it has identified two suspects who have been involved in dozens of crimes and perpetrators, including murder, rowing, causing general danger, etc.

Otherwise, Kosovo authorities accuse the <x0 criminal groups close to the Serbian List and Belgrade” of burning cars with RKS license plates in northern Kosovo.

What are the Prosecution arguments?

Free Radio Europe called on the High Public Prosecutor in Belgrade and Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs to provide more information on Nikolic's arrest and two other Kosovo Serbs, but has not received answers.

Neither has the Office for Kosovo responded to the Government of Serbia.

Lawyer Ivan Niniq, on the other hand, says the prosecution plans to hear ten witnesses at the beginning of May, of which, he says, at least five are members of the Serbian Progressive Party, respectively, of the Serbian List.

We believe this process is political nature, that it is installed. It serves the goal of intimidating the disobedient Serbs, primarily in northern Kosovo, but also all those Serbs who resist the politics of the Serbian List”, he estimates.

He adds that there is currently nothing showing that the High Public Prosecutor in Belgrade has evidence of the actions his client is accused of and believes he will be released after witness hears.

Otherwise, says attorney Niniq, for the first time, will be presented before the opinion <x0 specifics and arguments on the details and way of functioning institutions in northern Kosovo”.

For these arguments he has not wanted to speak in detail at the moment, but has said briefly that “opinion will be surprised at what is happening in northern Kosovo in the last 15 years, especially in the security sector”.

The other lawyer arrested: Politically Insisted Court

REL has also contacted the arrest attorney of S.P.

Ahmed Delimejac also claims it is a politically installed “process and that his client has been arrested by Serbian authorities based on “an official note from police in Belgrade”.

The police called people in Kosovo, on the phone, and those people in phone conversations were told that my client and others from this group were approached on the street and said on occasion: What you want, Serbia no longer exists here, this is Kosovo, you must recognise the Kosovo authorities. And, as if they have distributed several leaflets with that propaganda for Kosovo independence”, says lawyer Delimejac.

According to him, the “arresting persons on the basis of official grade is scandalous because such is not possible under the criminal Law of the Republic of Serbia”.

It also explains that the case is in the investigative phase, even though the investigation has not officially been opened.

Is there a list of secular Serbs?

Rada Trajkovic, politician and current adviser to the Minister for Communities and Kthim in the Government of Kosovo, says “is ironic that Serbia's strongest border is the one with Kosovo, even though it claims to be an integral part of it”.

It, personally, was often prohibited at crossings by Serbian security structures.

“They have their own list of inappropriate Serbs who are not under the control of Milan Radojici. All those people have been put on the lists, some of them have nothing to do with politics, but they have to do with the determination to live normally, to have Kosovo's registered cars; they can move freely without fear of anyone stopping”, she says.

Milan Radoicicic is deputy chairman of the Serbian List, which is wanted by Kosovo authorities and is also on the US blacklist for “inclusion in international organised crime”.

Trajkovic stresses that there is no one single person in Kosovo not to have a family member in Serbia and explains that Kosovo Serbs are “connected to Serbia for many other reasons, such as going to medical or education.

In this context, Trajkovic says that after these recent arrests, many will be afraid to cross the border with Serbia.

Because of discrimination and political inadequacy, they put you on one of their black lists. It is not hostile activity against the state, it is, as they define, party treason against the Serbian Progressive Party”, considers Trajkovic.

Free Europe Radio has been addressed to the Serbian Progressive Party with a request to comment on the accusations that co- talkers are making, but until the text release it has received no response.