Nine months have passed since the leader of GI SDP Oliver Ivanovic was shot six times in the back on January 16th early in the morning on his way to work, in front of his party premises in North Mitrovica. Ivanovic’s associates, family members and friends lit candles at the site of his murder – as they do every 16th of the month. After nine months of investigation, his associates and family have no information about the ongoing investigation and whether there is any relevant evidence about the instigators and killers of Oliver Ivanovic.
Only accusations and conflicting statements arrive from Belgrade and Pristina, while the international community remains silent, Ivanovic’s party associates said.
„Minister Stefanovic stated that they don’t have significant information about the instigator and the killer and that they remain committed to finding them because it is important for the safety of citizens not only of Kosovo but of Serbia as well. And we ask – if they don’t find that in nine months, what could happen later?“ – reads the GI SDP press statement.
They reminded of the recent statement from the special prosecutor on the absence of significant details in the investigation which could indicate who could be the potential killer.
Mr. Syla also talked about the lack of cooperation with the Serbian investigating authorities, reminded the party further. „The only detail he put forward was that the Montenegrin citizen who was arrested in Pristina and suspected, and who allegedly had nothing to do with the murder, although his involvement was speculated about in the media for days. The bickering, speculations, spinning of stories and political speeches continue even after nine months,“ reads the SDP party press release.
Oliver Ivanovic was the most prominent Kosovo Serb leader in the last 20 years. Ivanovic was a deputy in the Serbian Coalition for Return in Kosovo’s transitional institutions and the State Secretary at the Ministry of Kosovo and Metohija of the Government of Serbia. When he was killed he was a member of the Municipal Assembly of North Mitrovica. This MA did not hold a commemorative session. He was buried in the Alley of Meritorious Citizens in Belgrade. Months before the murder he was severely targeted and attacked as a traitor of the Serbian nationhood by the pro-governmental local and national media, Srpska Lista and SNS high-ranking state leadership and activists.
Two months ago a street was named after him in North Mitrovica. Sutjeska Street in which he was killed does not bear his name, neither do some of the central streets or squares in North Mitrovica. Based on the decision of Srpska Lista deputies in the North Mitrovica Municipal Assembly – a side street near the main Ibar bridge in Bosniak Mahala was named after him.
„They did everything they could to me, they just didn’t shoot at me. I think it would be wrong,“ Ivanovic said a few months before he was murdered.
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