Albanian family in southern Serbia targeted by persecutor campaign

On the streets of this small town, which has about 10,000 inhabitants, a portion of citizens in recent days are protesting the death of a fellow cityman in a traffic accident that sparked ethnic tensions, as the suspect of the accident is a young Albanian national.

Although the suspect has been arrested, banners have been seen in the protests calling for the boycott of bread ovens owned by the suspect's family, as well as calls for the expulsion of the entire Albanian family.

There were similar messages at the February 19 protest.

Goran Mladenov, one of the participants in the protest, said the family should leave that country because, as he put it, it is “responsible for the reckless driving of car” by the suspect.

He claims the protests are not ethnically motivated.

 

 

Under these conditions, with this arrogant attitude and behavior, I think they should leave. He (sopher) is only 20 years old and driving with a Kosovo driver's license”, Mladenov said.

While his bread ovens are surrounded by police, the owner of the furnace was not found on the scene. He didn't respond to calls or REL messages.

The area of persecution and calls for deportation preceded hate speech in a local group on the app for sending messages, Viber, whose member is the minister in Serbia's Government, Novica Tonqev, former mayor of the Surdulica municipality.

While stressing that he supports demonstrators, Tonqev says the protests do not have <x0 national bases”.

The attacks and calls for lynching condemned the Minister for Human and Minority Rights, Demo Berisha, stressing that it is an unacceptable “for tragedy to be misused for the spread of hatred, calls for deportation and collective condemnation on the basis of national affiliation”.

Until the publication of this text, there is no response from the competent prosecution if they are investigating the attacks and inciting national hatred in Surdullica.

According to the 2022 census, six citizens of Albanian nationality live in this city.

On one side of protest, and on the other, support

Police, prior to the recent February 19th protest in Surdullica, stood in front of bread ovens “Park” owned by the suspected driver's family, but demonstrators, unlike earlier this time, did not meet before them.

Tens of people stood in the centre of the city with Serbian flags and banners with the message “Justice for Rastkon” (dead in the accident).

Despite calls for boycotts and attacks, three ovens owned by the Albanian family continue to work.

An employee at one of the <x0Park” furnaces, which asked not to reveal his identity, said she did not support the protests.

She added that for her employer she could say “just the best words”.

While the REL journalist was talking to the employee, some people entered the oven to buy bread but refused to talk.

In downtown Surdulica, REL also met Danijela, who stressed that she does not support the boycott of furnaces and protests.

She said she knows the owner of the furnace by sight and that she is against the persecution of an entire family.

“to respond to the one who committed (the criminal act)”, she said.

The prosecution in Vladicin Han, near Surdulica, announced on February 19th that the road accident is under way for serious anti-public traffic safety work due to a person's death.

The accident occurred on February 9th, while prosecutors suggest the suspect B.F. It owns a driver's license from Kosovo “, which was immediately seized during the domestic examination of the event by police”.

The prosecution also announced that it would order “expertise in order to determine the cause of the accident, the speed of moving the vehicle led by the suspect, as well as the fact that the deceased person was offered medical assistance at times”.

The suspects are assigned the detention measure, while the prosecution stresses that “in this, as in all procedures, presumption of innocence” is respected.

The prosecution also stressed that this announcement was issued, among other things, due to the “publishing unverified information on social networks”.

How did it start?

Protests in Surdullic were organised through social networks and text exchange application, Viber.

Social networks and media were published by correspondence in the Viber Group “Justice for Rastkon”, which is said to have several hundred members.

These communications, among other things, call for the boycott of furnaces but also for the expulsion of the suspect's family.

The hate language escalated into protests, where journalist Dejan Cvetkovic, who was reporting from the scene, was also attacked.

I was physically attacked and stumbled during my work, directed various comments with sexual contact. I think (some individuals) were unhappy with my reporting, because I put up protests in the context of interethnic failure”, she said.

She added that the first protest was organised before the suspect's family oven, when those present laid eggs in the direction of the facility.

Cvetkovic also stressed that in conversation with the furnace owner, he has learned that after those events he was forced to evacuate his family from Surdulica, but that even this did not go through without incident.

He told me protesters attacked the vehicle that was evacuate his family”, she indicated.

REL did not receive information from police if and how many people have been detained for attacks on the furnace and the Albanian family.

A series of requests to institutions, including the resignation of police leaders in Surdullica, were formed in the same protests because of claims to ignore the problem of reckless driving by the suspect.

Questions were also addressed to the local Health Centre because of claims that emergency assistance has arrived late.

The authorities in Surdullica did not answer questions about the protests and hate language heard at these gatherings.

Minister “beside demonstrators”

One of the members of the Viber group where hate messages were exchanged was the minister without portfolio in Serbia's Government, Novica Tonqev, who is also former mayor of the Surdulica municipality.

Asked about calls for the expulsion of the Albanian family, Tonqev responded that <x0-proposal peaceful projects are being held in Surdullica as the form of expression of discontent for the reckless behaviour of participants in traffic”.

At these civic gatherings, the cause is by no means a national basis, but only addressing competent institutions that such and similar things should not happen”, he wrote.

Punishment of Targeting

However, some nongovernmental organisations and institutions in Serbia interpret the events differently in Surdullica.

The organisation “Civic Initiatives” announced on February 17th that a “campaign is under way in that country that includes the collective entertainment of citizens on the basis of their national belonging”.

Especially disturbing is the fact that in communication channels where calls for permanent deportation and collective punishment have also taken part, including Minister Novica Tonqev”, it is said in response.

Commissioner for the Protection of Equality Milan Antonijevic condemned threats and hate speech directed at the Albanian national family.

Antonijevic said the public expression of messages calling for lynching, deportation or intimidation constitutes serious violations of the right to equality and could lead to endangering the safety of citizens and worsening interethnic relations.

Recently, Washington has also warned about the position of the Albanian minority in Serbia.

Members of the US House of Representatives Foreign Policy Commission in January called for a review of a series of problems facing Albanians in southern Serbia, praising that they are discriminated against.

The government in Serbia has dismissed these estimates.

According to the 2022 census, more than 60,000 Albanians live in Serbia, and they make up the fourth largest national minority in the country. / REL