Brnabić at the UN Security Council on Kosovo: The man who shot Serbian boy is free

Brnabić at the UN Security Council on Kosovo: The man who shot Serbian boy is free

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic represents Serbia at a session of the United Nations Security Council at which the Report on the work of UNMIK will be examined today in New York.

The beginning of the session is scheduled for 15:00 local time in New York.

The Report on the work of UNMIK for the period from March 19 to September 18, 2023, will be presented by Head of UNMIK Caroline Ziadeh.

“The current political impasse, with its impact on the security and well-being of the population, can only be overcome through compromise that should be worked out in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue,” Ziadeh stated.

At the beginning of the meeting the UNMIK head said de-escalatory measures are critical to reduce tensions, and that she hopes that the outcome of the European Union and US-led meetings held separately in Pristina and Belgrade on October 21 will place the dialogue back on a right path, with firm commitment by both sides to implement de-escalatory measures and the proposals set forth during the meetings.

“This includes recommitment by both parties to fully implement all previous agreements. Accordingly, work on the establishment of the Community of Serbian municipalities should begin without delay or preconditions, alongside all other essential agreements,” said Ziadeh.

Ana Brnabić's address at the UN Security Council session

At the beginning of the session, Serbian Prime Minister referred to the basic principles of international law and said that Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, people in Kosovo and Metohija suffer every day.

"Dear President of the Security Council, respected members of the Security Council, respected special representatives, I would like to begin by expressing my gratitude to the UN Secretary-General, Mr. Antonio Guterres, and the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and the head of UNMIK, Mrs. Caroline Ziadeh, for the attention they are paying to Kosovo and Metohija. As always, I want to emphasize the importance of regular and objective reporting on the situation in Kosovo and Metohija, AP of the Republic of Serbia, in accordance with the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, the UN Charter, UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and the basic principles of international law. I am grateful for the opportunity to address those present, but also the international public, I share my views on the latest UNMIK report.

I will try to refrain from overly bureaucratic language and present our views - in a clear and direct way - simply because the situation in the past two years, and especially in the last 12 months, has become so serious that we all need to try to understand, not as politicians, but above all as human beings, what is happening and where to go next, in order to give those in Kosovo who are suffering every day at least a glimmer of hope, even a glimmer of hope that stability and long-term peace is possible," says Ana Brnabić.

Officials in Pristina have only three key messages for the Serbs, the other non-Albanian population of Kosovo and Metohija - and for the international community, she points out. Mr. President, from what we can all see on the ground, based on numerous examples in the past 12-18 months, the officials in Pristina, the administration in Pristina, unfortunately, in the simplest terms, have three key messages for the Serbs, the other non-Albanian population of Kosovo and Metohija - and for the international community. And everything that we see in these reports, and everything that happens on the ground every day, can be summed up in these 3 messages.

The first message is: Those Serbs who left - after 1999 or during the ethnic cleansing in 2004, should not return. They are not welcome. It is deeply disturbing, regrettable, but also shameful that, according to relevant UN reports, Kosovo remains the territory that, compared to all post-conflict territories in this crazy world of ours, has the fewest returnees. Less than 2% of the displaced returned to Kosovo! This is not happening by chance.

When they return, if they try to return, they usually find that someone has illegally seized their private property. They then go to the authorities to report the usurpation and ask for help, hoping for justice and fairness. In most cases, instead of getting help, they are arrested and end up in jail. Only in the last few months, individuals such as Dušan Arsić from Matica near Pristina, Časlav Jolić and Gavrilo Milosavljević from Istok and Milorad Djoković from Vitomirci, have all been arrested on charges of war crimes, even though they entered Kosovo several times in the past and never been arrested nor charged, until the moment they demanded their private property, their land, their homes to be returned to them. At that moment the accusations suddenly appeared, only after the legal processes to recover the usurped property had begun!

This is a clear message from officials in Pristina to displaced Serbs: do not return, you are not welcome! - she pointed out. Hence the humiliating fact: Kosovo remains the world champion in the smallest number of returnees of all post-conflict territories around the world, the prime minister points out.

"The second message that is sent to the Serbs in the most brutal ways is: those who stayed, who still live in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija and who want to stay - they should leave. Through months and years of systematic, complete annihilation of even the most basic human rights of Serbs and other non-Albanians, turning their lives into a constant nightmare of insecurity caused by the complete absence of the rule of law, and marked by the arbitrary decision of who and when will be arrested, detained, beaten, tortured, humiliated and held in prison for an unknown amount of time, wondering if they will shoot children, brothers, fathers and husbands freely, just because they are Serbs, if your priests will be deported and your property confiscated, if those who shoot at you and those who beat you will always, as a rule, be released - as what happens every day in today's Kosovo and Metohija - by doing it every day, every week, every month, every year, Prishtina has managed to create a dangerous security crisis in the last few years as we saw in the last UNMIK report.

What we see today in Kosovo, and the UN Secretary General's report clearly shows some of these things, is comprehensive political, legal, institutional and physical violence against Serbs.

The absolute turning point when everyone realized that Pristina wanted the Serbs to leave was not the attempted murder of the 11-year-old child Stefan Stojanović and his 21-year-old cousin Miloš, while they were participating in the Christmas procession in Gotovuša, near Štrpce. No. Namely, that was the day when Azem Kurtaj, who committed this heinous crime of shooting children on Christmas Day and who is a member of the so-called Kosovo Security Forces (which, by the way, are an illegal formation according to Article 15 of the UN Security Council Resolution 1244), was released as a free man," explained Ana Brnabić.

Azem Kurtaj, who shot and wounded an 11-year-old boy on Christmas Day, is a free man today, who was completely amnestied by the Pristina judiciary, she warns.

"That is perhaps all anyone needs to know about the rule of law in Kosovo and Metohija and everything anyone needs to know about the conditions in which Serbs and other non-Albanian populations in Kosovo live today. So, let me ask all of us this question - when an Albanian, a member of the so-called Kosovo Security Forces, shoots and seriously injures a child, and then is declared a free man - isn't that an invitation from officials from Pristina for someone else to shoot, terrorize, injure or kill Serbs? Why not - there are no consequences for such actions. The amnesty for Kurtaj is essentially an open invitation to others to repeat such actions," she said.

The deadline for the establishment of the CSM passed 5-6 years ago, but still - this is something that needs to be done, the Prime Minister points out.

"CSM is an indispensable element on which the implementation of any further agreements rests. However, to be clear, it should be CSM in accordance with the signed agreements from 2013 and 2015, and not any organization that bears that name. Method of formation and adoption of the Statute of the CSM, as well as its powers, are clearly defined and cannot be subject to interpretation. The general principles for the establishment of the CSM, its legal framework and a detailed list of its competences are clearly stated in the Agreement from 2015, which was signed by Isa Mustafa, as the official representative of Pristina in the presence of the then EU High Representative Federica Mogherini. We all know that Pristina has openly stated several times in the past two years that it has no interest in the CSM. To make matters worse, Pristina has been actively undermining everything it has for the past 12 months achieved by the Brussels Agreement. On November 3 last year, Albin Kurti dismissed the commander of the North Regional Police Department, which practically disbanded the multi-ethnic police force in Kosovo and Metohija, which directly contradicts Article 9 of the Brussels Agreement. Only after this action did the representatives of the Serbian people leave the institutions of Pristina. This departure came after Kurti essentially kicked them out of those institutions. As another signal that they do not recognize the Brussels agreement or care about it, on August 4, in the middle of the security crisis in the north of Kosovo, Pristina tried to revoke the license of the Telecom company MTS. This measure represents a direct violation of the Brussels Agreement and the results achieved by that agreement," said Ana Brnabić.

The key event from which everything started irreversibly towards comprehensive destabilization was the fake local elections held in April, in 4 municipalities in the north of Kosovo, she explains.

"Instead of realizing that the Serbs left the temporary institutions as a call for the full implementation of the Brussels Agreement and saving the dialogue process, Pristina decided to further escalate. They decided to hold local elections in which only 0.03% of Serbs participated, which is more than 95% of the population in the north of Kosovo and Metohija. The elections were held in a reduced number of polling stations, voting took place in special containers under the protection of a fully armed army. "Free and fair" is not a term anyone would use to describe those elections.

After these events (because they cannot be called "elections"), the officials of Pristina (because they cannot be called "elected mayors") forcibly entered the municipal offices in Zvečan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic, accompanied by special units of the Kosovo Police, armed with long-barreled rifles, which is another direct violation of the Brussels Agreement. You all know what happened in the following days, and as we heard from the UNMIK Report - a terrible escalation.

More than 50 unarmed Serbs were injured in the protests. Members of KFOR suffered injuries, which is tragic and unacceptable. On that occasion, three Serbs were hospitalized due to gunshot wounds, and 4 were arrested. The most serious injuries were sustained by Dragiša Galjak, who was shot in the back by a burst from an automatic rifle, and suffered injuries to his spine, stomach and hand. The member of the special unit of the Kosovo police responsible for this crime has not been arrested or even charged. Instead of prosecuting the criminals who shot at the protesters, Pristina keeps people like Dusan Obrenović in prison. Obrenović, as can be clearly seen in the video, peacefully protested against the violence, but that, as well as the evidence that followed, did not prevent his arrest, after which he was brutally mistreated and beaten. He remains in custody to this day," she says.

At that time, on June 3, the EU called for de-escalation, the prime minister recalls.

"And since June 3, when the EU demanded an immediate de-escalation, Pristina has taken a total of 23 escalating steps in the north of Kosovo. 23! A total of 24 Serbs have been arrested since the EU demanded an immediate de-escalation. One of them, Milun Milenković Lune, during the arrest and in custody was brutally and inhumanly beaten, which was documented both through medical records and reports. He was accused of participating in the citizens' protests in Zvečan, although he was not even in Zvečan that day! He is also still in custody. The UNMIK report confirms that there is a video that shows the mistreatment and degradation of one of the arrested persons while he was in police custody, and that video is widely distributed on social networks. The Kosovo police intercepted two minor children, Christian (15) and Dara Radosavljević (17), who were driving quad bikes in the village of Rudare near Zvečan and brutally beat them. A fifteen-year-old boy and a seventeen-year-old girl! The mother found her son kneeling, covering his head with his hands, while two heavily armed police officers stood over him," said Ana Brnabić. On June 23, the so-called Kosovo Security Forces conducted a military march with hundreds of their members in South Mitrovica and around the suburbs of North Mitrovica, she points out.

"EU High Representative Josep Borrell said on that occasion: "The escalation continues. We are very disturbed by the situation in the north of Kosovo: extrajudicial arrests of Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo security forces are marching in South Mitrovica." On June 28, on our most important national holiday, Vidovdan, the Kosovo police stopped the car in which Danilo, the elder son of the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, was on 3 occasions - which is a clear and brutal provocation. On June 29, Pristina unilaterally declared the Civil Protection "terrorist organization" without any coordination and consultation with international partners. And so on... Pristina continued the illegal expropriation of Serb-owned land in Zubin Potok and Leposavic. They also passed a new law on expropriation, legalizing the illegal seizure of Serbian land. Pristina persisted in the establishment of illegal bases in the north of Kosovo and Metohija on land that was illegally taken from the Serbs.

The EU delegation in Pristina announced that: "The establishment of 4 bases of the Kosovo Police on private and public land - in some cases before the initiation of expropriation proceedings - raises concerns about property rights in the north Kosovo must also be adequately resolved." Let me add, just 2 days ago, the abbot of the Devina voda monastery near Zvečan, father Fotija, was deported to North Macedonia without a clear explanation. And in this same short period, after the EU called for de-escalation, as many as 74 ethnically motivated attacks on Serbs took place. Dear members of the Security Council, the crisis in Kosovo and Metohija, considering all the facts presented, tragically but predictably escalated on September 24 when an armed conflict occurred between a group of armed Serbs from Kosovo and Kosovo and police and paramilitary formations from Pristina in the village of Banjska and its surroundings'', Brnabic said.

Investigations are ongoing with the clear aim to provide all the answers and clear up any ambiguities surrounding these events.

Closing remarks

The Prime Minister underlined the objectives of the Republic of Serbia.

"First: Implementation of all previous agreements - that is, the Brussels Agreement and the establishment of the CSM in accordance with the agreement signed in 2015.

Second: Security for our people, for all people in Kosovo. While the dialogue continues, and we seek a compromise that will ensure long-term peace and stability, historic reconciliation between Serbs and Albanians, prosperity, help the people living in Kosovo and Metohija, Serbs and other non-Albanians, to live in peace, enjoy basic freedoms and security without constant intimidation and persecution.

Third: We stand for and firmly believe in the principles of international rule of law and the UN Charter, and will continue to call for full compliance with Resolution 1244.

Fourth: Peace and stability. We must be able to create a better, more prosperous future for the younger generations. We must be brave enough to solve all open questions, no matter how difficult they are. But for that we need a dedicated and honest partner. Let's take steps together to prevent the crisis from getting completely out of hand.

At this moment, the most rational approach would be for KFOR, in accordance with its mandate under UN Security Council Resolution 1244, to temporarily assume full responsibility for security in northern Kosovo.

UNMIK could play a significant role in this process. Dialogue is the only way to solve the problems of Kosovo and Metohija. I can only say that Belgrade will remain loyal despite all the difficulties. And we call for new local elections in the north of Kosovo to be held as soon as possible, as part of de-escalation efforts.

This is what the Serbs in Kosovo expect, and everyone in the international community recommended this and pointed out the need. Thank you for your attention! - concluded Prime Minister Ana Brnabić.

After the session, the Prime Minister Brnabic is scheduled to meet with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.