The Albanian MP in the Serbian Parliament, Shaip Kamberi, has strongly condemned the shocking statement by Snezhana Paunović, Minister of Local Government, who said that if she were in Slobodan Milošević’s position in 1998, she would carry out ethnic cleansing in Kosovo.
As a result of these words, Kamberi announced that he will take steps to remove her from office.
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Warning of the consequences of inaction, he stressed that silence and institutional inertia would be interpreted as tacit support for her statement and an official stance of the entire government cabinet.
Kamberi pointed out that the fascist rhetoric of members of the Serbian executive confirms that the mentality of the Milošević era is still alive, considering the statement intolerable and urgent for an institutional response.
To this end, he announced that he has submitted a formal request to the international diplomatic corps accredited in Belgrade.
According to him, such an expression cannot be seen as an isolated case. It stems from a culture of continuous denial of war crimes, glorification of convicted criminals, blurring of international court decisions, and rewriting of the past.
Speaking about the consequences for minorities, Kamberi stressed that for the Albanians of the Preševo Valley, such statements by high-ranking state officials create a deep sense of insecurity and raise the legitimate question of what protection they can expect from the institutions.
He also recalled that as an EU candidate country, Serbia has the obligation to guarantee and protect the rights of minority communities, and that the minister’s statement openly clashes with these obligations and exceeds every democratic norm that forms the foundation of the European Union.
