Civil society condemns Serbian minister’s hate speech

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Serbian Internal Affairs Minister Aleksandar Vulin’s use of a derogatory name for Albanians met with condemnation by more than 20 civil society organizations.

Vulin repeatedly used the word Shiptar to refer to Albanians on May 20. The word is derogatory in Serbian.

The 22 organizations from Serbia and Kosovo sharply condemned the offensive, derogatory words Vulin used. “We are calling the Serbian government, that is Prime Minister Ana Brnabic, to react and condemn Minister Vulin’s hate speech and oppose the use of the word Shiptar,” the joint statement said.

The statement recalled that the Serbian judiciary ruled in 2018 that the word Shiptar was offensive and designated it hate speech. “Minister Vulin actively and consistently used the word when speaking about Albanians and continues to do so with no consequences for his position in the Serbian government. Public officials who use hate speech have no place in the authorities,” it said.

“The words used by Minister Vulin are the same words that the media and officials used during the 1990s to dehumanize the Albanian population and motivate mistreatment, human rights violations and war crimes in Kosovo,” the statement said and warned that hate speech encourages everyone opposed to a normalization of relations between Serbia and Kosovo and to the region’s European future.