Conflicts remain between Serbia and Kosovo & more – 20th June 2023

Dobar dan from BA! This is the Rorshok Serbia Update from the 20th June twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Serbia.

On Tuesday the 13th, Kosovo police arrested Milun Milenkovic, a Kosovo Serb, on suspicion of arranging attacks against NATO peacekeepers during the clashes between Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo police in late May. The tensions in the north of Kosovo are a direct result of ethnic Serbs trying to prevent the ethnic Albanian mayors from entering the municipal buildings. These mayors won with a very low turnout because the extraordinary elections were boycotted by Serbs. During the clashes, dozens of both NATO peacekeepers and Serbian protestors sustained injuries. However, local media has reported that Kosovo police used tear gas in the arrest of Milenkovic, which happened in the predominantly Serbian town of Mitrovica.

Xhelal Svecla, Kosovo’s Interior Minister, confirmed the arrest on Facebook and accused Milenkovic of leading terrorist gangs that had previously harmed Kosovo police. Petar Petkovic, Serbian government’s pointman for Kosovo, said that the arrest was just a call for further conflict and said that Milenkovic is not a criminal.

Speaking of arrests…

On Wednesday the 14th, Kosovo and Serbian institutions reported that the Serbian police had arrested three Kosovo police officials. However, Kosovo officials deemed the arrest as kidnapping. Both countries provided different information regarding the location of the arrest. The Director of Serbia’s Office for Kosovo said that the Serbian police arrested the policemen near the border with Kosovo in Serbia, while the other side claims the contrary was true.

Kosovo’s PM Albin Kurti said that the arrest of the policemen was a direct revenge for the arrest of Milun Milenkovic. He also requested that Serbian officials immediately release the detained policemen.

Before these incidents, PM Kurti sent a letter to the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell with a plan to defuse growing tensions between Kosovo and Serbia. The letter came after the West called on Kosovo to immediately de-escalate the situation between the two sides, following the police clashes in the city of Mitrovica.

One of the five points Kurti had written called for re-establishment of the rule of law in the four Serb-dominated municipalities in northern Kosovo. He called for Pristina to announce early elections in the four municipalities in the north and for Kosovo and Serbia to return to the EU-mediated dialogue.

Kurti also announced that he is willing to meet with president Vucic under the mediation of the EU.

On that note about Vucic, the seventh anti-government Serbia Against Violence protest took place on Saturday the 17th. Thousands of protesters blocked the highway in Belgrade and requested that government heads respond to the culture of violence they permitted in Serbia. The crowd chanted “Vucic out!” while holding cardboard cutouts of president Vucic, PM Ana Brnabic and other prominent figures in black-and-white jail garb. The protesters requested the resignation of certain ministers, accusing them of inability to preserve peace and safety in Serbia. The protest leaders also refused to speak to the government until they met the stated demands.

In other news,

The Council of Europe’s anti-trafficking body GRETA published a report on access to justice and effective remedies for victims of human trafficking in Serbia. In the report, they stated that Serbia has adopted several legislative changes relevant for combating human trafficking. The first example they gave is the introduction of the recovery and reflection period for victims of trafficking to the Law on Foreigners.

However, GRETA has stated that Serbia must take further steps to ensure that victims of trafficking get better access to justice and effective remedies. This includes prompt and accurate identification of victims of trafficking, the provision of a recovery and reflection period, the availability of material, psychological, medical and legal assistance, among others. In particular, they said that the lawyers in Serbia representing the victims must have better knowledge of trafficking issues. Also, they said that Serbia should reimburse the costs of legal aid and legal assistance which NGOs provide.

Speaking of improvement, the Center of Modern Skills, which is an organization focusing on the accomplishment of social justice, among other things, called on Serbia to reduce the level of violence and the deepening of divisions that are currently very prominent in Serbian society. They stated that the violence in Serbia has progressively gotten worse after the two mass shootings and nineteen femicides since the beginning of the year. However, they added that a big contributor to the violence is the media, who publish inappropriate articles to gain more website clicks and likes on social media posts. The director of BeFem, a feminist cultural center, said that Serbia is in need of politicians who will advocate for social justice and the well-being of Serbian citizens, since they are key to changing the situation for the better.

In some news on the economy…

The State Statistics Office announced that the year-on-year inflation in Serbia in May was 15 percent, while the monthly inflation was 1 percent. Compared to in December twenty twenty-two, the consumer prices increased by 5 percent on average. Serbia has seen an increase in prices in housing, water, electricity, gas and food sectors. The only drop in prices was in the transport and communications sector.

On that note about the communications sector, sometimes there are hard things to communicate. The HTEC group corporate communications director said that a wave of layoffs in the IT industry have hit Serbia, with the largest companies firing thousands of employees. Since the end of twenty twenty-two, the IT sector has seen a steady decline. Some have said that the massive layoffs have instilled fear of the future in IT workers. However, they said that they expected this outcome since many experts in the field had no projects for a while. On the other hand, others think that this is an opportunity for smaller companies to obtain quality experts.

On brighter news…

On Friday the 16th, PM Brnabic was at Schneider Electric’s new building in Novi Sad. Schneider Electric is a French multinational company that specializes in digital automation and energy management and addresses homes, buildings, among others by combining energy technologies, real-time automation, software, and services. Brnabic said that Serbia could become a research and development hub for large companies because of them. She told Schneider Electric that the establishment of their firm in Novi Sad will encourage other companies to open their own development centers in Serbia.

In some environmental news…

The Ministry of Mining and Energy in Serbia has signed a contract with Management4health, a partnership of international health sector professionals, to improve the energy efficiency of the Military Medical Academy, or VMA. This improvement of the VMA will cost a total of 220 million dollars and will be carried out in three phases over the next six years. The Minister of Mining and Energy said that this project is very important in Serbia’s attempt to improve energy efficiency in public buildings. The ministry expects the first phase of the project to reduce natural gas consumption at VMA by up to forty percent and electricity consumption by up to thirty percent. They added that they expect the project to cut CO2 emissions by 24,000 tons a year. VMA is one of the largest hospitals in Serbia, so the implementation of the project will also improve the quality of services for patients.

Speaking of the environment,

Investors from France and the UK have started working on the plan for the construction of solar power plants in Pirot. The Pirot area has the strongest solar irradiance after the far south, giving the city potential for energy projects which attract investors. Pirot’s mayor has said that this project will not only benefit the environment, but that it will also serve as an incentive to the construction industry and the opening of new job titles. He added that the build projects for three small solar power plants are also underway. The planned capacity of these solar power plants is around 125 MegaWatts.

Now onto some health updates.

About 400 COVID-19 cases were confirmed, with zero deaths this week. Compared to last week, the number of confirmed cases has decreased by almost 200.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Do daljnjeg, zbogom!