There is no doubt that yesterday’s events in the North have affected the people in Serbia, despite the current turmoil happening within the country itself, after a wave of violence and two massacres, assessed Savo Manojlović for KoSSev. „The images of shock bombs and gunfire are traumatic, and when you come here, you see that most people have a sense of apathy and believe that this has already been agreed upon,“ he says.
The leader of the Kreni-promeni movement, Savo Manojlović, arrived with his associates in the North immediately after the events to, as he says, show solidarity with the people here.
They came for a few hours because they are returning to the protest in Belgrade today. It will be another, expectedly massive gathering of citizens following two mass shootings in which 18 children and young people were killed, and around 20 were injured.
Violence continued yesterday in three northern municipalities when the Kosovo authorities, with a strong show of police force, escorted newly elected Albanian mayors in municipal buildings and replaced Serbian flags with Kosovo ones. While Srpska Lista held a press conference urging Aleksandar Vucic to halt all negotiations with Pristina until their demands are met, forensic teams are currently present in the third municipality, conducting investigations. The press conference was held upon their return from Belgrade, where they attended Vučić’s rally yesterday, which was viewed by some as a counter-rally.
„We are not here to preach; I think the people here are probably tired of someone coming and talking. Although I’m not exactly a guest here, I don’t want to behave as if I were coming and sending messages and making decisions. I really want to send a message of solidarity to the people who are going through a very difficult moment when the entire society in Serbia is experiencing some kind of breakdown,“ says Manojlović, with whom we spoke in Zvečan.
While Serbia mourns the victims of two mass massacres and an entire wave of violence, Manojlović emphasized that a precedent has also been set in the North with the violent occupation of municipal buildings in Zvečan, Leposavić, and Zubin Potok.
„What happened here hasn’t been seen in the past 23 years – Serbian institutions have never been occupied. People felt some kind of security. Now, you can see unrest among the people.“
Manojlović connects the current situation in the North with that in central Serbia through pain, solidarity, and hope.
„In order to bring about change, hope is needed, and to reach hope, sometimes we need to go through a very difficult period together, and sometimes we need to be with people in such a difficult moment,“ Manojlović concluded at the end of the conversation.
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