Osmani: Serbs in North Kosovo threatened, coerced not to vote

NEWS 24.04.202317:23
vjosa osmani
Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

While congratulating the Kosovo Central Election Commission for organizing the elections in northern Kosovo, and the Kosovo Police for providing security, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani accused Belgrade of intimidating voters and violating the recently concluded Brussels Agreement.

Following elections held Sunday, Osmani announced that Kosovo’s institutions will step up efforts to “safeguard the citizens” in North Kosovo so as to “protect them from the threats of illegal structures,” KoSSev reported.

Extraordinary local elections were held Sunday in four Serb-dominated municipalities in northern Kosovo, which were prompted by the withdrawal of Serbs from Kosovo’s institutions in November last year.

The elections were boycotted by the Belgrade-backed Serb list and by the Serbs who make up the majority population in these four municipalities.

Osmani congratulated the Central Election Commission for the successful organization of the elections in northern Kosovo. As the same time, she also thanked the security institutions for their professional and diligent work, enabling a peaceful and secure environment throughout the electoral process.

“The institutions of Kosovo have demonstrated their unwavering commitment to upholding the constitutional and legal processes of the Republic of Kosovo, thereby enabling citizens to exercise their right to participate in the elections, in accordance with the Constitution and laws of Kosovo. Moreover, our institutions showed that the criminal groups directed by Serbia cannot dictate the constitutional and legal processes in the Republic of Kosovo,” Osmani posted on Twitter.

She commended the citizens who voted, despite, as she said, “the illegal interference of Serbia and its criminal structures who intended to undermine the democratic process.”

“It is of serious concern that many Kosovo Serbs in these municipalities were threatened and coerced not to participate in the elections, thereby preventing them from expressing their political will and electing their local representatives,” Osmani claimed.

She said “the foreign interference” in elections is a global challenge for the democratic world and that it “not only undermines the will of citizens but also violates the principle of sovereign equality of states, which is one of the fundamental norms of the international order.”

The Kosovo President recalled that she recently participated in US President Joseph Biden’s Summit for Democracy, where Pristina undertook the obligation “to stand alongside democratic states to combat this growing phenomenon” of interfering in others’ electoral processes.

She thus said that Serbia’s “continuous interference, which is intended to hinder free and fair elections” is against the spirit and the letter of the last Agreement reached in Brussels, as well as its implementation plan agreed in Ohrid.

“The international community must unequivocally condemn the actions of Serbia, as they represent an act of illegal foreign interference in the elections of another country, which is in violation of a series of international legal acts,” said Osmani.

She said Kosovo institutions will step up efforts to “safeguard the citizens” in northern Kosovo in order to “protect them from the threats of Belgrade’s illegal structures.”

Kosovo’s institutions will coordinate with “strategic allies to counter any further destabilizing actions of Serbia, which are also contrary to the latest Brussels Agreement,” she said.

Osmani stressed that Pristina is determined “to foster better living conditions, strengthen democracy and wellbeing in each neighborhood of each municipality” together with the citizens of the municipalities in northern Kosovo.