Serbs waiting for Vucic to arrive during his January 2018 Kosovo visit. Photo: Valdrin Xhemaj/EPA

Some Kosovo Serb representatives say that employees of institutions funded by Serbia in Kosovo are being pressured to attend a rally in support of President Aleksandar Vucic, and fear reprisals if they do not show up.

“Everyone in education has been called on to declare [whether they will go] – in the university and the elementary and high schools,” Ksenija Bozovic, from the Freedom, Democracy, Justice Party, based in the divided northern town of Mitrovica, said.

Bozovic told BIRN that employees are being given statements to sign, saying that they will attend the September 9 rally, and that the situation is the same in Serbia-funded health care facilities.

Father Sava Janjic, abbot of the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Decani, said that workers in schools had told him that “an important [Serbian] state institution” had ordered them to send lists of their employees who will not attend the rally.

Зову нас забринути људи из школа. Морају да пошаљу списак свих радника својих школа због одласка на предстојећи митинг 9. сеп у Зубин Потоку. У понедељак се шаљу спискови свих који неће да иду. Наредба стиже из једне важне државне институције. Људи, па ово је повратак у комунизам — Архим. Сава – Fr. Sava, Dečani Monastery (@SavaJanjic) August 30, 2018

“Listening to numerous testimonies, I feel that our people – especially those living south of the river Ibar – are deeply humiliated these days, when a systematic process of proscription is implemented by preparing lists of those who are supposed to attend the ‘rally of the century’ … and show support to something they don’t believe in,” Janjic wrote in another Twitter post.

A former Serb MP in the Kosovo parliament, Rada Trajkovic, also said that Kosovo Serbs working in healthcare, education and social services had reported being pressured to attend Vucic’s rally.

“It is an unprecedented abuse of institutions,” Trajkovic told BIRN.

The Serbian Education Ministry told BIRN that it had no knowledge of alleged lists of education workers who will attend Vucic’s rally.

The Health Ministry and Vucic’s Progressive Party did not reply to BIRN’s request to respond to the allegation by the time of publication.

Vucic announced in August that he will visit Kosovo in early September to present “guidelines and directions of state policy towards Kosovo” to local Serbs.

The visit would come after Vucic and Kosovo President Hashim Thaci meet in Brussels on September 7, to further negotiate the normalisation of relations between Serbia and Kosovo.

Vucic has been calling for a territorial swap with Kosovo along ethnic lines, an idea that has met strong resistance from Serbian and Kosovo opposition parties, Kosovo Serbs and from some ruling politicians in Kosovo.

Thaci, on the other hand, has spoken of a “border correction”, saying last week that his own proposal for ethnic Albanians living in southern Serbia to join Kosovo will be one of the topics at the September 7 meeting.

NOTE: This article was amended on September 4, 2018 to include a response from the Serbian Education Ministry.

Read more:

Calls Grow in Kosovo For ‘Border Correction’ Protests

Open Letter ‘Implores’ EU, US, to Reject Partition

