“This is the moment when there is no more room for calculation. And who is responsible? Vučić,” Dejan Mirović, a professor of International public law, told KoSSev.
“He stabbed the Serbian people in Kosovo and in Metohija in the back — the same people who endured 1999, 2004 and 2008,” he said. “He accepted the Franco-German plan, which recognizes Kosovo’s independence, sovereignty, and the inviolability of its borders, as well as its right to international representation and to regulate relations with the Serbian Orthodox Church. That, in particular, is a disgrace.”
Mirović has taught for years at the University of Priština with temporary headquarters in Kosovska Mitrovica, a Serbian-run institution operating in Kosovo. He is now calling on the Serbian government — the university’s legal founder — to clarify its position on the institution’s status.
The university has recently been drawn into political tensions amid debate about whether it could be integrated into Kosovo’s institutional system or relocated to central Serbia.
More than two decades ago the university returned to Kosovo with the approval of international authorities and remains the only Serbian institution operating there under that arrangement.
Tensions have grown following the planned full implementation of Kosovo laws regulating foreigners and vehicle registration, as well as a notice ordering one faculty to vacate its premises for “illegal use” unless it signs a contract with the University of Pristina operating under the Kosovo system.
Rumors circulating in Serbia have suggested the university could be relocated to Novi Pazar, a move critics say would threaten the stability of the existing university there.
According to Mirović, both students and professors feel trapped.
“There is a great deal of fear. Many are caught between two fires — Pristina and the Serbian List,” he said.
Earlier this month, professors from the Faculty of Law in Mitrovica launched an online petition urging Serbian authorities and the international community to preserve the university within Serbia’s education system. The petition has gathered about 4,000 signatures.
Mirović said the initiative marked a significant step, even though he believed the petition’s wording could have been stronger.
“The fact that so many professors were willing to sign something like this would have been unimaginable just a year ago,” he said.
He also sharply criticized the university’s rector, Nebojša Arsić, accusing him of acting under political pressure.
“The rector is a direct executor of the orders of the Serbian List and Vučić and is unworthy of the office he holds,” Mirović said.
The dispute has been further fueled by a declaration adopted in February by representatives of Kosovo Serbs, including leaders of education and healthcare institutions and mayors from Serb-majority municipalities. The declaration warned that Serbs face “unbearable living conditions” and called for concessions and additional deadlines for the implementation of the laws on foreigners and vehicles.
Mirović argues that parts of the declaration implicitly accept the authority of Kosovo institutions, which he says contradicts Serbia’s Law on Higher Education, under which the university formally operates within the Serbian system and under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.
Despite his criticism of Serbian authorities, Mirović acknowledged that Western governments continue to support Vučić.
“They support him because he delivered things none of his predecessors did — police integration, the judiciary, energy and telecommunications,” he said.
Mirović warned that the planned integration of Serbian institutions in Kosovo would not proceed smoothly.
“Vučić’s trick, as a very clever man, is to make us accept the integration ourselves, so he can later claim that it was our decision and blame others, like Kurti or the international community,” he said.
“Mitrovica is fundamentally a university town. Its economy and daily life depend on students, and I am not sure they will follow us if we agree to the integration,” he added.
“We must take a position that reflects reality here, but Belgrade must also speak clearly. The idea that we integrate ourselves and then Vučić says ‘you did it yourselves’ — that will not happen,” Mirović said.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
