From Paunović to Brnabić, Bujanovac Activist Raises Alarm: The Hate Speech of the ’90s Against Albanians Is Returning

A harsh wave of criticism has erupted following a statement by Snežana Paunović, Serbia’s Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, who used heavily threatening language against Kosovo and the Albanian people in an interview with the Serbian press.

The minister stated: “For our flaws and stupidity, if I had been as free as Milošević, I would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo in 1998.”

This phrase has been described as an open provocation and a risk for the revival of the violent discourse of the last decade of the previous century. Refik Hasani, an activist from Bujanovac, stressed in a statement to “Bota sot” that the minister’s words do not constitute an isolated episode. According to him, this is a continuation of a rhetoric filled with hatred, racial prejudice, and hostile attitudes coming from the highest governing levels of the Serbian state.

He drew attention to previous examples, including statements by former Prime Minister and current Speaker of Parliament Ana Brnabić, as well as numerous messages written on banners inciting violence against Albanians.

“This statement by Snežana Paunović, a member of the Serbian government cabinet, is not the first case where a high-ranking official gravely insults and spreads hatred, racism, and xenophobia. In Serbia, banners with public inscriptions carrying pronounced hate speech and direct threats against us are appearing more and more frequently. Most recently, an even more offensive statement came from Ana Brnabić, two-time former prime minister and now head of Parliament, who said: ‘Don’t ask for rights; it’s enough that we are not killing you.’ Meanwhile, slogans like ‘Death to Albanians’ and ‘We will kill Albanians’ are not simply isolated actions of citizens or associations, but they fuel an atmosphere of threat against the state of Kosovo and the entire Albanian nation,” Hasani stated.

He warned that such stances from Serbian authorities and institutions are reviving the spirit of the 1990s, calling this an alarm signal and a dangerous message for the security of Albanians and regional stability.

“This is not just about Minister Paunović’s statement, but also about the speeches of Ana Brnabić, the Speaker of Parliament, as well as the positions of the leaders of the army, police, state universities, the Academy of Sciences and Arts, and the Serbian Orthodox Church. All of them continue to inject into the Serbian population a mindset identical to that of the 1990s. This is a strong alarm, an echo of that same dangerous discourse. It is a clear threat of a new conflict and for domination over Albanian lands,” he emphasized.

Subsequently, Hasani called on the international community to turn the page in its relations with Serbia and to abandon its favoritism without first facing accountability for the crimes committed in the past.

Considering these expressions as hate speech, he demanded that the European Union take concrete and punitive steps against Serbian representatives.

“I hope that the international factor will now change its stance towards Serbia and that it will no longer be treated with privileges and favors in any EU forum or other global mechanism, including the United Nations, without apologizing for the victims, for the ethnic cleansing, expulsion, and genocide in Kosovo, Bosnia, and the former Yugoslavia.

International law, according to all conventions and treaties, strictly prohibits any kind of war propaganda and any call for national, racial, or religious hatred that incites discrimination, hostility, or violence. Serbia, by acting this way, promotes the spread of theories on racial superiority and the incitement of violence against racial and ethnic groups.

The EU must condemn Minister Snežana Paunović’s statement with a binding resolution. European institutions must demand that the Serbian Parliament and Government officially distance themselves from it. If this does not happen, Serbia should face financial and diplomatic sanctions.

The moment has come for the EU to compel the criminal prosecution of this minister for an open call for ethnic cleansing, incitement to war, hatred, and racism. She should be declared an undesirable person, non grata, by the EU and the USA,” Hasani concluded for “Bota sot”.