Kuçi: Promise of BIA Employment Part of Mechanism for Political Control and Pressure on Albanians in the Valley

Security affairs expert Gurakuç Kuçi reacted following a statement by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić during his visit to the Preševo Valley. Vučić promised a citizen that, within 48 hours, he or his son would be contacted regarding the possibility of employment with Serbia’s Security Information Agency (BIA).

Kuçi interprets the statement as a development that goes beyond a job offer, viewing it as part of the way in which, according to him, the authorities in Belgrade seek to strengthen political and institutional control in the Preševo Valley.

The expert stresses that in autocratic regimes, intelligence services can be turned into tools for controlling citizens. According to him, the recruitment process in such structures can also be influenced by political aims and interests.

For Kuçi, the significance of Vučić’s statement is particularly linked to the fact that the promise concerns the BIA, one of Serbia’s main security institutions.

He believes that a persistent climate of interethnic tension is being consolidated in the Preševo Valley, in which Serbs are portrayed as a threatened community, while Belgrade presents itself as their protector.

“In this context, he needs as many people as possible within the security institutions who are directly linked to the regime and ready to implement its political objectives,” Kuçi wrote on X, KosovaPress reports.

According to the expert, the way Vučić conveyed the message resembles the model used by former Serbian president Slobodan Milošević in Kosovo Polje on April 24, 1987, when he addressed Serbs with the words: “No one should dare beat you.”

Kuçi sees the same approach in Vučić’s statement that what Albanians at the local level do not do for Serbs, “we will do for you from Belgrade.”

Such communication, he said, portrays Belgrade as the protector of Serbs against Albanians and, at the same time, turns local governance into an ethnic issue.

By contrast, Albanians in the Preševo Valley, Kuçi stresses, continue to face address deactivation, underrepresentation in institutions, and a lack of employment in state and security institutions.

He specifically points to Bujanovac, where, according to him, it has been reported that no young Albanian has been hired by the police for around ten years.

“While Serbs are promised employment, support and direct intervention from Belgrade, Albanians continue to face gradual administrative and institutional elimination,” Kuçi stated.

The security expert warns that this model could directly affect relations between communities in the Preševo Valley.

According to his analysis, the process begins with portraying Serbs as victims, continues with increasing hatred and distrust toward Albanians, and ends with the mobilisation of the central state as their protector.

Kuçi warns that such a policy could increase pressure on Albanians in the Preševo Valley and create circumstances in which administrative elimination could, in his view, shift into more direct forms of pressure and exclusion.

His reaction came after Serbian lawyer Čedomir Stojković published a video. Stojković has also expressed doubts about the use of the BIA for political purposes, interference in electoral processes and pressure on voters.

Stojković stated that Vučić’s words demonstrate the Serbian president’s direct influence over the intelligence service. He also called for increased international oversight of electoral processes in Serbia.