Kosovo Calls on EU for Stronger Response to Serbian Minister’s “Ethnic Cleansing” Statement

The Kosovo government has called on the European Union to go beyond its initial response, which it considers “limited and delayed”, in condemning Serbian Minister Snezhana Paunovic’s statement regarding “ethnic cleansing” in Kosovo.

Serbia’s Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government told Serbian television channel Kurir last weekend that, had she been in the position of former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic in 1998, she “would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo”.

The statement prompted numerous reactions. Kosovo has already filed a lawsuit against Paunovic and permanently banned her from entering its territory.

On Saturday, the Kosovo government said that First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Glauk Konjufca had sent a letter to the EU’s High Representative, Kaja Kallas. In it, he called for a stronger response from the European bloc, which both Kosovo and Serbia aspire to join.

In the letter dated July 16, the Kosovo government asks the EU “to clearly and publicly condemn Minister Paunovic’s statements, make it clear to the Serbian authorities that such rhetoric is unacceptable and contrary to European values, and address this issue seriously within the framework of political dialogue and Serbia’s EU accession process”.

The European Union has already condemned Paunovic’s statement. On Thursday, Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos reiterated this position and said she was surprised that Paunovic continues to serve as a minister in the Serbian government.

“I will not even repeat what she said. It was truly shocking to hear such a statement. I cannot imagine that a minister, after making such a public statement, could continue to carry out her duties,” Kos said on Thursday.

In Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic said that Paunovic’s words “do not reflect my will, nor that of the Government of Serbia”. He added that “the policy of the Serbian state is dialogue, never ethnic cleansing”.

Paunovic, who is vice president of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Milosevic’s former party, has not withdrawn her statements. However, on July 16, she said that her words “had been taken out of context” and apologised to Vucic and the Serbian government for the reactions they caused.

At the same time, Shaip Kamberi, the only Albanian MP in Serbia’s parliament, announced on Thursday that 53 opposition MPs had submitted a request to Serbian Prime Minister Gjuro Macut for Paunovic’s dismissal.

The MPs asked Macut to propose her dismissal to the Serbian parliament “without any delay”.

It remains unclear whether Prime Minister Macut will submit such a proposal to the 250-seat Serbian parliament.

Observers from Kosovo and Serbia told Radio Free Europe that Paunovic’s statement is part of a pattern in Serbian policy towards Kosovo. According to them, the international community should not limit itself to reactions, but should take concrete measures against Serbia.

Her words reopen old wounds in Kosovo, where hundreds of thousands of Albanian civilians were expelled during the 1998-1999 war.

More than 13,000 civilians, mostly Albanians, were killed in that war, while thousands of others went missing.

More than 1,500 people, most of them Albanians, remain missing.

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague found the then leaders of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to be key participants in a “joint criminal enterprise” aimed at forcibly expelling hundreds of thousands of Albanian civilians from Kosovo in 1999.

According to the judgments, the aim was “to alter the ethnic balance in order to maintain Serbian control over Kosovo”.

Slobodan Milosevic, the main defendant, died in detention before the trial was completed, while Milan Milutinovic, the former president of Serbia, was acquitted.