Prishtina, 18 April, 2024
Dear Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers and Deputy Ministers,
Dear citizens,
The result of voting on Tuesday in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was an extraordinary success for the Republic of Kosovo for two main reasons. First, it completed the most complex stage of the membership process. And secondly, even though we needed 2/3 of the votes in favor that is close to 67% we achieved 82% of the votes in favor. This is a clear sign of the vitality and successful engagement of the diplomacy of the Republic of Kosovo. For this once again, from this hall, I want to thank the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Mrs. Donika Gërvalla. Thank you Donika!
The success achieved in these last two years in this process, made the arguments in favor of the membership of the Republic of Kosovo not only ours anymore. In September 2022, the Legal Department of the Council of Europe confirmed that there is no legal obstacle for Kosovo to become a full member of the Council of Europe; meanwhile, in May 2023, Eminent Jurists confirmed that Kosovo meets the standards of the Council of Europe, and even exceeds international standards in some issues (such as constitutional rights for minorities); and on March 27, rapporteur Bakoyannis confirmed that Kosovo has met all the prerequisites; and the day before yesterday, on April 16, the Parliamentary Assembly recommended the membership of Kosovo as a European state, without additional preconditions and removing the asterisk from the denomination. So, the denomination with an asterisk was not there and today, April 18, we find that this joint achievement of the state and the citizens makes us all happy for the work and contribution so far, but at the same time for the new opportunities that lie ahead of us.
These facts and the strong support two days ago, on April 16, where 131 MPs were in favor of membership, are clear calls for the Committee of Ministers to consider our application in May and for Kosovo to accept the invitation to join the Council of Europe that same month.
The citizens of the country will benefit from Kosovo’s membership in this organization. While the biggest beneficiaries in terms of their rights and protection will be the non-majority communities and the marginalized groups of society.
Yesterday, after the successful passing of the vote in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Serbia took revenge. Hundreds of citizens of our country were stopped at the border for over 20 hours, who used Serbia not as a destination but as a transit to return or go to the countries of the European Union.
Among those detained and arrested was the deputy director of the Kosovo Police, Dejan Jankovic, from the ranks of the non-Majority Serb community in Kosovo. According to the information we have, Deputy Director Jankovic has been sent to Raskë. We know from the past that in case of being sent there, those who are detained are interviewed by various state actors of Serbia. Yesterday, a total of 10 members of the Kosovo Police (Serbs and Albanians) were detained at the border crossings Merdar, Jarinje, Dheu i Bardhë and at the border between Croatia and Serbia. Five of them have been released, while five are still in custody, including the deputy director Jankovic, but there are also Sinisha Milic, Zoran Marinkovic, Boban Simeunovic and Ramiz Ibrahimi*.
Serbia’s action is a low act of revenge against Kosovo’s success towards membership in the Council of Europe. Meanwhile, the mistreatment of the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo is also an act of serious violation of human rights, free movement and the principle of good neighborliness. With yesterday’s action, Serbia violated a host of agreements including the July 2011 agreement on free movement of citizens, the November 2022 agreement on free movement with identity cards between Western Balkan countries and the Basic Agreement on in February 2023 in Brussels for the normalization of relations and for good neighborliness.
Arbitrary, groundless arrest and detention and mistreatment of Kosovo citizens by Serbia, only because they use Serbia as a transit country, brought back bitter memories of Milosevic’s Serbia. Thus reminding us that it remains the same, because it is led by a former subordinate of his. Moreover, Serbia’s retaliatory action is also intended as an act aimed at escalating tensions. This is because Serbia does not like normality, peace and tranquility in the region and especially in Kosovo. After the free fall into autocracy in the last ten years, the regime in Serbia, in cooperation with the Russian Federation, is constantly looking for tensions and conflicts, sometimes in Kosovo, sometimes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes in Montenegro and often in both or in all three at the same time.
Serbia is a source of threat to the peace, security and stability of the region. Not only does it not have internal democracy, it does not respect civil and political liberties, the rule of law and freedom of the media, but it also aligns itself with the Russian Federation, which it has not sanctioned by joining Belarus.
Miloshevic and Putin, whom the President of Serbia has internalized, and who seems to be successfully hiding from the democratic leaders, are coming to the fore as soon as he returns to Serbia. Because Europeanization does not happen with Russian lullabies.
The bans yesterday were made on the commemoration day of the terrible massacres in our country, in the villages of Paklek and Old Čikatovo in Drenica, where the Serbian army massacred 77 unarmed Albanian civilians. After they had killed them, in an attempt to eliminate the traces of the crimes, in Paklek they had set the dead bodies on fire, and in Cikatovo they had taken them and sent them to the mass cemetery in Rudnica.
After the fall of Milosevic’s regime, five mass graves were discovered in Serbia, with a total of 950 of our people killed and kidnapped, 744 in Batajnica and over 200 others in Peruqac, Petrovo Selo, Rudnica and Kizhevak. Serbia still continues to dwell on the mass graves while denying them as well as the crimes committed. And we are looking for the 1597 missing from the last war.
Based on the agreement reached on May 2 of last year in Brussels at the high-level meeting, we repeat the request for the opening of the archives of the 37th Motorized Brigade of the Yugoslav Army, the main responsible for many massacres in the region of Drenica and for the fate of many missing persons in this region.
We need the complete truth, we need command and executive responsibility, and we need institutional judicial justice.
We call once again for the other pillar of power in Kosovo, the justice system, to act with determination, because it is high time to bring justice to the victims of the war. Local justice must act without delay, so that those responsible, the order givers and executors, are accused, tried and punished.
Dear colleagues, dear citizens,
What happened on Friday and Tuesday, these crimes against women, show the consequences of low punishments and often impunity. They show the failure of the judicial and prosecutorial system to establish justice in our country. Insufficient sentences are a violation of the victims’ rights. These, covered by the lack of accountability and transparency in duty by the justice system, are not forgiven by our citizens. As their voice, we have the responsibility to take measures to establish accountability where it is necessary, and to seek justice, at all costs, where it is lacking.
In line with the common goals with the Council of Europe for increasing transparency and public access to judicial decisions, the work and every procedural action of every judge and prosecutor must be transparent.
Legally and morally, no one can be denied the right to a fair trial, nor the right to equal protection under the law. So that we have meritorious punishments for murdering men, and justice for women victims.
Our political will is unwavering. We are determined to do whatever is necessary to protect the lives and rights of women and girls in Kosovo. No effort is too great in this essential battle for dignity and equality.
For the planned and necessary actions within the inter-institutional response, I will pass the floor to the Minister of Justice, Mrs. Albulena Haxhiu, the National Coordinator for protection from domestic violence, violence against women and gender-based violence, and then on the same topic I will give the floor to the Deputy Prime Minister who comes from the Bosnian community, Emilija Rexhepi, and after these two words, we continue with the agenda items.
*Update: From the moment of the Prime Minister’s address, four of them have been released, but not the Deputy Director of Police, Dejan Jankovic.
Last modified: April 19, 2024