On 24 October, media in Kosovo reported about an incident involving adolescent children in the village of Kuscë e Epërme/Gornje Kusce in the municipality of Novobërdë/Novo Brdo in eastern Kosovo. It was reported that adolescent children belonging to the Serb community were attacked by another adolescent individual from the Albanian community. Reportedly, the attacker used a piece of wood with a nail on it and he managed to wound a Kosovo Serb fellow child. The wounded child was immediately sent to the hospital in Gračanica/Graçanicë and his wounds were not life-threatening. Kosovo Police confirmed the incident took place, and later on arrested two adolescents, 16 and 17-year old respectively, believed to be the perpetrators.[1]

The youngster was visited by the Director of the Office of Community Affairs within the Office of the Prime Minister, Ivan Tomić, who called on the Kosovo Police to investigate the incident and take appropriate measures. Tomić also added that it is the parents’ responsibility to educate their children not to hate people from other ethnicities, and that incidents of this nature show that “we all need to work more, including parents”.[2] Serbian political representatives in Kosovo quickly condemned the attack, stating that it was another instance of ethnically motivated violence against the Serb community in Kosovo.[3]

Nevertheless, our research in the field and conversations with our contacts from the Serbian and Albanian community in Novobërdë/Novo Brdo indicate that this incident was not a blind ethnically motivated attack but came about as a result of young children playing a game of football and having a fight afterwards. This is confirmed by the official Kosovo Police report on incidents during the day.[4]Although the violence itself should be condemned, it should be treated carefully and rash and premature conclusions when commenting on potentially ethnically motivated incidents should not be a norm. An escalated fight between Serbs and Albanians playing football, although intolerable and a worrisome indicator of the continuing ethnic distance and divide between young Serbs and Albanians even in places where they live close together, it is, nevertheless, not a blind ethnically motivated attack without any occasion.

A separate incident took place in Pejë/Peć when a bus with Serbian license plates was reported to have been stoned on its way to the “Usekovаnjа glаve sv. Jovаnа” (Beheading of Saint John the Baptist) church in Pejë/Peć. Media in the Serbian language report that the bus was stoned even though it was being escorted by Kosovo Police, while media in Albanian report that the bus was stoned after its passengers started chanting pro-Serbian slogans and giving the three-finger salute, commonly perceived to be a provocation by Albanians and other non-Serbs.[5] No passengers were injured in the stoning, and the bus injured material damage.[6] Minister for Communities and Return, Dalibor Jevtić, condemned the stoning of the bus and said that Serbs have a right to visit their places of worship all over Kosovo. He singled out what he called a small number of Serbs working for Kosovo Police in the Pejë/Peć as a problem that needs to be fixed. He said that Serbs in Kosovo want to live together in peace and equality with others.[7]

Whatever the occasion for the attack – and no occasion can justify the use of violence – representatives of all communities, including municipal authorities, representatives of the Serbian Orthodox Church and organizers of these visits, and Kosovo Police should sit together and agree on measures that should be taken to make sure that visits to Serbian Orthodox places of worship take place in a peaceful manner.

[1]http://www.rtklive.com/?id=7&r=46342 and http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2015&mm=10&dd=24&nav_category=640&nav_id=1055272

[2] http://www.rtklive.com/rtk2/?id=2&r=3438

[3] http://www.rtklive.com/rtk2/?id=2&r=3429;
http://www.rtklive.com/rtk2/?id=2&r=3428;
http://www.rtklive.com/rtk2/?id=2&r=3430.

[4] http://www.rtklive.com/?id=7&r=46342

[5] http://www.telegrafi.com/lajme/sulmohet-autobusi-ne-peje-pasi-udhetaret-serbe-ngacmuan-ne-baza-etnike-80-11127.html;http://www.rtklive.com/rtk2/?id=2&r=3435 and http://www.rtklive.com/rtk2/?id=2&r=3436

[6] Ibid.

[7] http://www.rtklive.com/rtk2/?id=2&r=3436

The decision of the Parliament’s Commission for Legislation not to proceed with a law proposal until further clarification on the fact that the proposal and in particular the Parliament’s logo were written in the Cyrillic alphabet reopened a longstanding discussion on the official use of language and their alphabets.

This update to ECMI Kosovo’s Kosovo Communities Issues Monitor situates this disagreement within the longstanding but unresolved discussion on the use of the Cyrillic alphabet in official use in Kosovo. It urges Kosovo’s political representatives and institutions to solve this legal ambiguity through a serene and inclusive dialogue. In addition, the update also uses this occasion to address the poor implementation of Kosovo language legislation in general.

Please click here for the full document:

In July the new human rights package came into effect. In this political analysis, we provide an overview of the laws and the challenges that need to be considered by the Kosovo institutions on how to improve the enjoyment of the fundamental rights and freedoms for all the community members.

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During the past ten days, there has been an upsurge in incidents involving Serb communities in the Pejë/Peć and Klinë/Klina area. These incidents come on the heels of a series of incidents in Klinë/Klina this past May, where Kosovo Serb returnees were victims of robberies and verbal abuses. This newest contribution to ECMI Kosovo’s Kosovo Communities Issues Monitor argues that this series of attacks, while still being under investigation, speaks of an emerging trend of incidents directed at the Serb community in the area, which cannot be discarded as merely isolated cases. This pattern of incidents calls for adequate security measures and engagement from all sides of the political spectrum, including representatives of the majority community.

Please see the full update:

During the past weeks, the Serb community in and outside Kosovo has marked the holiday of Vidovdan with cultural events and religious services throughout Kosovo. On Sunday 28 June, the annual celebrations surrounding Vidovdan concluded with a memorial service at Gazimestan. No incidents were reported either by police or by media. This is a highly significant step towards normalisation of ethnic relations in Kosovo, even in relation to politically charged commemorations such as Vidovdan. The latest update to our Kosovo Community Issues Monitor analyses the factors that contributed to this positive development.

Please see the update:

The ECMI Kosovo Guidebook on Social Mobilization targets civil society organisations, and individuals, interested in enhancing their skills, techniques and methods for community mobilization in Northern Kosovo.

This user-friendly guide consists of presentations, instructions and recommendations used throughout the implementation of three capacity building modules with participation from twenty civil society organization active in Northern Kosovo.

The Guidebook on Social Mobilization is published within the framework of the project “Community Mobilization – Capacity Building Program for CSOs in the North of Kosovo”, supported by the European Office in Kosovo and implemented by ECMI Kosovo in partnership with NGO Aktiv.