Kosovo has placed a senior Serbian state official on its ‘persona non grata’ list.
Snezhana Paunović, Serbia’s Minister of Public Administration and Local Self-Government, will not be able to enter or transit through the territory of the Republic of Kosovo, as the ban against her is permanent.
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This decision came after her statement that, ‘if she were in Slobodan Milošević’s place, she would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo in 1998’.
Paunović made the statement to the Serbian media outlet ‘Kurir’, on the very International Day of Commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Her words were strongly condemned in Kosovo by political representatives and institutions, which reacted to her language and stance. There were also strong reactions from the European Union and the Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos.
Paunović was born in Peja, Kosovo. According to official information from the ministry she heads in Serbia, she is a graduate economist.
She has been a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia since 1992. This political force, known as the party of Slobodan Milošević, the person responsible for massacres and wars in the Balkans, is currently led by Ivica Dačić.
Within this party, Paunović has held several important positions. For two terms, she served as Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, as well as head of the parliamentary group of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS).
Since 2017, she has been a member of the SPS Presidency, and since 2024, she holds the position of Vice President of the Socialist Party of Serbia.
In December 2021, Paunović visited the municipality of Štrpce together with several other female deputies from Serbia. During this visit, they met with the mayor, who comes from the Serbian List.
“This is how it is recognized how much the Serbian List belongs to the Republic of Serbia and how institutionally, in this case as the Parliament of Serbia, it is proud of these people who do an identical job, just at a slightly lower level, much more difficult than us in our Parliament, and I think this mutual support is infinitely important,” Paunović had stated, among other things.
Now, Kosovo has declared her ‘persona non grata’.
However, this is not the first case of Serbian officials using offensive and lynch mob language against Albanians in Kosovo and Albanians in the Preševo Valley.
Years ago, the former Serbian minister with a pro-Russian stance, Aleksandar Vulin, had referred to Albanians as ‘šiptari’ during a television program. He had stated that ‘gangs from Kosovo are stealing forests and shooting at Serbian police’.
