Persecution for constitutional order violations: “The” muscle display by Vuchiqi

A senior Kosovo Police official of Serbian nationality has been arrested in Serbia.

Banning Kosovo Police Deputy Director General, Dejan Jankoviq, According to Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs, it has become “aimed at proving the necessary facts and checks concerning the security of the Republic of Serbia”.

In addition, there is no other official information on Jankoviki's arrest in Belgrade.

But, Serbia's Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabiq, questioned by Radio Free Europe in this case, said she assumes that <x0 people finally responded to calls” to protect Serbia's constitutional order.

I expect praise from the international community for our members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as for our prosecution and all relevant institutions”, Brnabiq said.

Three days before the arrest of Kosovo police, Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq has announced that all those who violate the country's constitutional order will be prosecuted and arrested”.

“All of you who violate Serbia's constitutional order, all of you who participate in it in any way, with protests, demonstrations, in any way you will answer for it, will respond to all Albanians who participate in it”, Vuciq said on April 14th at a military ceremony in Belgrade.

Vuciqi's announcement of the arrest of all who violate Serbia's constitutional order, the Kosovo government sees as “warning and direct threat to the Albanian community in Serbia, as well as to Kosovo citizens passing through Serbia”.

Why did Vuchy react that way?

On April 14th, Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq issued a statement on prosecution of those who “denied Serbia's constitutional order” by answering a journalist's question about the arrest of Srecko Sofrojevic in Kosovo.

Sofronievic was arrested a day earlier in Kosovo under suspicion of violating Kosovo's constitutional order during protests in Zvecan and North Mitrovica in 2021, during a action directed against smuggling of goods.

Then there was a conflict between the Kosovo Police and Serb demonstrators, which resulted in dozens injured by both sides, including Sofronijevich.

Meanwhile, the Serbian List has indicated that it is “part of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti's “from northern Kosovo, placing it on the list of arrests by Kosovo authorities.

Kosovo institutions have earlier declared that there are no secret lists for the arrest of Serbs.

Dusan Janjic, chairman of the Forum for Ethnic Relations from Belgrade, tells Radio Free Europe that the arrest of deputy director of the Kosovo Police will deepen the crisis in relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

“When the deputy director of the Kosovo Police is arrested and receives cynical response (from Serbia's Parliament Speaker Ana Brnabiq) congratulations, this is a politicisation”, Janjzic says.

Dejan Jankovic is from Shtrpca, one of six Serb-run municipalities south of Ibri, and has been employed in the Kosovo Police since 2000. Since 2009, he holds the post of deputy director general in the Kosovo Police.

During Wednesday, authorities in Pristina said 10 Kosovo police officials have been detained in Serbia, but that only Deputy Director Jankovic is currently being held detained for 48 hours.

Jankovic could not have been deputy director of the police, as Dusan Janjic said, if he had not passed security control in Kosovo.

We have that problem here. Security control has made Kosovo authorities based on information from Serbia in co-operation with EULEX. So it's all twirling”, Janjiq says.

On April 17th, Kosovo authorities announced that even Kosovo citizens who were passing the tranche have been detained at several border checkpoints in Serbia “without any explanation”, while Serbia's MPB claimed it was about intensified “checks and security checks for all passengers”.

UN: arbitrary bans of Kosovo citizens and police officers, escalating action

Praises from the international community awaiting Serbia's Parliament Speaker Anna Brnabiq failed.

The US State Department has called on Serbia to refrain from unilateral and uncoordinated actions, and has said it expects the immediate release of Kosovo Deputy Director of Police Dejan Jankovic.

In an Answer to Free Europe RadioThe UN called on Serbian authorities to act with transparency and full compliance with the law concerning Kosovo citizens banned in Serbia yesterday.

“arbitrary or unfair long-term bans, especially if their goal is Kosovo Police officers, will be seen as escalating actions that undermine peace and stability”, a State Department spokesman for Radio Free Europe said on April 18th.

Even the American ambassador to Pristina, Jeffrey Havenier, after a meeting with Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, said Jankovik “is someone we have known for many years, ethnic Serb and member of the Kosovo Police, who has invested a lot of time and energy in the police, helping to integrate the Serb community into Kosovo Police”.

Germany's ambassador to Kosovo, Jorn Rohde, has said the ban on Kosovo police in Serbia is unacceptable and that this cannot be expected by membership candidates in the European Union.

“De-teriencing now! This should be completed immediately, and we expect Kosovo Serb politicians to speak even on behalf of their fellow citizens”, Rohde wrote on the social X network.

What do they say in Kosovo?

The prevention of Kosovo police officers from the ranks of the Serb community, including Deputy Police Director Dejan Jankovic, who continues to be held in Serbia, is an attempt to intimidate and pressure against Serb integration in Kosovo”, Kosovo Government spokesman Kryeziu told Radio Free Europe.

He estimated that “Serbia seems to be desperately searching for tensions”, and that the Serbian authorities' behaviour towards Kosovo citizens is in violation of the agreement on normalising relations and the agreement on freedom of movement achieved under the Berlin Process.

Kosovo Interior Affairs Minister Jedal Svecla has declared on April 18th that a senior Kosovo Police official, who has been assigned the detention measure for 48 hours, is charged with undermining Serbia's constitutional order.

Who and how is Serbia's constitutional rule “being violated?

Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq's cabinet has not responded to the REL's question about who and how it violates the constitutional order, which Vuciq has warned to prosecute.

Neither the MPB nor the Supreme Public Prosecutor, whose activities the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vuciq, has announced.

“When our prosecution and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are determined to fully accomplish their work, and I believe it will be from next week, all those who violate Serbia's constitutional order and are located where we have effective powers will be prosecuted and arrested by the competent authorities of Serbia”, Vuciq said on April 14th.

Justice professor Vesna Rakiq-Vodinelj told Radio Free Europe that, even though it is not fully clear who Vuciq refers to, it “can be thought of” from experience.

I believe he will lead his anger to the opposition and to them, as he calls national antistate minorities, such as the Albanian minority. He cannot arrest Albanians in Kosovo because Serbia has no jurisdiction there”, she said.

What do Albanians in southern Serbia say about Vuciqi's announcement?

“Albanians in the Presevo Valley feel absolutely insecure”, says about Radio Free Europe Ragmi Mustaf, senior official of the Party for Democratic Action (PDD) from Bujanoc.

The mention of Albanians under the arrests for violations of constitutional order, Mustafi says, affects the creation of an atmosphere in which they are seen as enemies of the state.

“It's about a lot of pressure that keeps us from thinking, working, moving freely, much more when you know you're one of the goals attracted by the highest official, the president of the country”, he points out.

Ragmi Mustaf, who is also political adviser to Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Besnik Bislimi, believes that statements by Serbia's president refer to all from the Albanian community that are critical of Serbia's top officials.

He adds that Albanians are not a major national minority that can change the government in Serbia or influence in any way and that Serbia's president should be president of all citizens.

“No one else violates constitutional order, but only the president, thereby targeting Albanians and thus violates Constitution”, Mustaf estimates.

He adds that the whole atmosphere remembers the 1990s.

It's the same as when Slobodan Milosevic proclaimed everyone in the world as an enemy of Serbia. Promoting war, targeting, exclusion of others. Serbia's country is only of Serbs and all others are enemies of it”, he points out.

He also estimates that Serbia is thus approaching a model of governance that resembles Russia”.

According to 2022 census, 61,687 Albanians live in Serbia, making them the fourth largest national minority.

Albanians in Serbia live mainly in municipalities in southern Serbia . Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanoc.

What constitutes violations of constitutional order?

Criminal acts against constitutional order are determined with the Criminal Code in Serbia.

Law professor Vesna Rakiq-Vodinelj explains to REL that one of the ways is abuse of authority.

The second criminal act that could be a violation of constitutional order could be treason, third, for example, the capitulation, the unconstitutional attack on constitutional order, and so on”, it stresses.

She adds that violations of constitutional order should not only bring criminal responsibility but also political responsibility for decisions that violate constitutional order:

“Sic is violating the oath given by various officials that they will respect the Constitution and law”.

It explains that the most endangered “to violate constitutional order are those who are at the helm of the state”.

As Rakiq-Vodinelic says, one of the violations of the Constitution is violating the principle of separation of powers, when one who is not authorized to make certain decisions is making those decisions.

She sees violations of constitutional order in Vuciqi's own statement.

“He said that from the next week the prosecution and police will start doing their job, first you know when it comes to executive organs that are independent of the authority and orders of the president of the republic, and the second, the question is why they have not done so far”, she said.

She believes that the meaning of all of this is “muscle vision” and the threat of “even greater authority”.

Recent tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have occurred on the eve of voting at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 16 April, on the recommendation that Kosovo become a member of this organisation.

The decision should be confirmed by the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers in mid-May.

Even before that decision, dialogue on normalising relations between Serbia and Kosovo, under the ease of the European Union, has stalled, while both sides accuse each other of failing to meet obligations from the Ohrid Agreement.

This agreement was reached between Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, in early 2023 in Ohrid, who agreed on steps towards normalising relations.

UN: arbitrary bans of Kosovo citizens and police officers, escalating action