By Dr. Gurakuç Kuçi
Professor at Universum College and External Associate at the “OCTOPUS” Institute for Hybrid Warfare Studies
How is it possible that the state which carried out the most severe ethnic cleansing in the Balkans during the 1990s today uses the term “ethnic cleansing” more than anyone else to portray itself as a victim and to justify its being drawn into a new war?
Igor Simić, Vice-President of the Serbian List and a member of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo, stated today in an interview with the Serbian media outlet PINK that: “…the goal is for Serbia to be drawn into some conflict at any cost…”. Such a statement was not made to the public following any major confrontation or military threat, but in a case in which an administrative decision is being implemented to demolish 11 illegally constructed buildings near Lake Gazivoda.
This statement by Simić comes only a few days after Snežana Paunović, a minister in the Government of Serbia, slipped and revealed the true mindset that continues to exist within the Serbian authorities. She stated that, “had she been in Slobodan Milošević’s position in 1998, she would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo.”
Meanwhile, the reaction of Serbian Prime Minister Đuro Macut was not a condemnation of the idea of the ethnic cleansing of Albanians. He merely stated that he had told Paunović “that statements in that sense were not acceptable.” Therefore, the problem for him was not the content of the statement, but the fact that it could be presented as official policy.
For years, illegal construction in areas of special interest and ecological importance in Kosovo has been prohibited or demolished, including in Batllava, Prevalla, Sibovc and other areas. In Rugova, the decision to halt construction activities caused dissatisfaction and protests among residents, who described the decision as unjust and discriminatory. Nevertheless, no one called it “ethnic cleansing.”
Therefore, Serbia simultaneously articulates ethnic cleansing as a solution against Albanians and uses the same term as an accusation against Kosovo when its institutions implement administrative decisions.
Serbia aims to ethnicise legal actions. The demolition of 11 illegally constructed buildings near Gazivoda confirms to us that Belgrade has a war strategy with short-term implementation plans, which it seeks to carry out through hybrid warfare, terrorist attacks or a “change in geopolitical circumstances.”
Stabilocracy, which strengthened Hitler and Putin, is today doing the same with Vučić and Serbia.
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