E SI: No international observer has seen “ethnic cleansing” of Serbs in Kosovo

The European Initiative for Stability said that no international security organisation, including security, has seen evidence of Belgrade's claims that there are “ethnic cleansing of Serbs” in Kosovo, but that lack of evidence has not ended the promotional claims.

In a report with the title “Set up statistics, lies and confusion in Kosovo”, the organisation recalls that in July 2023 Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic declared NATO and the UN had fourteen days to disarm the Kosovo police forces and protect Kosovo Serbs from “ethnic corruptions and ethnic cleansing” of Albanians. Otherwise, “Somebody else” would have to do that.

The report quoted by the VOA notes that warnings that Serbia may need to send troops to Kosovo to protect Serbs are not new, referring to a statement by Serbian President Vucic of August 2018, in which it had described Kosovo as a barrel of powder.

Everyone will expect an opportunity to hit the other one to achieve an advantage on the ground. And every day we will worry if we are attacked in the north, where we will be struck, with whose support...”, the Serbian president had said.

However, statements in 2018 argued that if Serbs are attacked in Kosovo, Serbia will protect them. Since 2023, statements argue that Serbs are now under attack and must be protected, says the Initiative's report, which in late July 2023 had said this is a serious threat to peace in the Balkans.

Several months later, Serb paramilitaries attacked Kosovo police in the north, recalls the report, the September 24th attack of a group of armed Serbs that killed a Kosovo police member.

It is time to take seriously what is currently being said by politicians in Belgrade. If they're invented, there's violence. If such false claims are not rejected, the situation will escalate further”, the report says, underlining that “should not be difficult for international organisations to dismiss false, fraudulent and dangerous claims on imaginary massacres whenever they are made. None of the numerous international field personnel in Kosovo from KFOR to EULEX, from UNMIK to the OSCE, has seen or described the ethnic cleansing of Serbs or Albanian terror in recent years. But lack of evidence has not halted stimulating claims”.

The initiative points out that one of the tools in this confessional battle has been statistics. On October 5th 2023, President Vucic said that as a result of the “Albanian terror”, 11 per cent of Kosovo Serbs have left Kosovo since the beginning of 2021. On February 8th of 2024, speaking at the UN Security Council, Vucic increased the number of Kosovo Serbs who had left in just one year to “14 per cent.

No evidence has been provided for alleged positions, systemic violence or “ethnic cleansing” alleged in recent years, the 18-page report on which comparisons are made to statements and statistics presented by Serbian authorities themselves. / VOA