Lists of school employees in central Kosovo who will be attending the rally of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic are being prepared. The rally will take place during Vucic’s announced visit on the 8th and 9th September in North Mitrovica, although it had been initially announced that it would take place in Zubin Potok. The lists with the names of those who will not be attending this gathering are also being made, it was confirmed for RTV Kim. KoSSev also received identical testimonies from employees in North Mitrovica and Zvecan. Non-attenders will have to sign for their absence as well. All sources have asked for anonymity.
RTV Kim had access to the lists made in certain schools in the Gracanica municipality. News portal „Gracanica online“ also reported on the attendance lists.
As a number of teachers, most of whom insisted on anonymity, told RTV Kim, at the same time, lists are being made with the names of those who do not want to attend this rally. Some teachers and professors fear that they will be sanctioned because of this.
Law teacher at the Laplje Selo Economic School, Zivorad Lazic, said that a meeting was held in their educational institution on Thursday, at which the school principal informed employees about attending this rally and gave them the lists.
„It was a list of signatures and a list of the names of those who will not go, such as myself. Now I wonder what kind of consequences will I have to face. At this moment I do not know, but you will find out what will happen to me in the upcoming period. I publicly declared that I will not be going,“ Lazic said.
He does not fear the consequences, however.
If Vucic is advocating for a delimitation, this will influence the creation of Greater Albania, which then makes the fear of losing a job pointless, says Lazic.
„If I lose my country, if I lose my house, then what should I be afraid of? Losing my job? We will lose our jobs anyway,“ he explained.
He is also aware that most of his colleagues will be forced to sign and attend next weekend’s meetings.
„On Monday, a list of teachers who will not go is supposed to be submitted. All of us who don’t want to go will face the consequences,“ Lazic added.
Gracanica and Laplje Selo elementary school principals claim that they are not familiar with details of the President’s visit.
„I don’t know anything about this,“ the principal of the elementary school „Kralj Milutin“ Vladimir Milkic said.
When asked if teachers and professors will welcome the president, Milkic replied: „Most likely yes.“
He, however, did not specify on whether the participation in the rally will be on a volunteer basis.
His colleague from Laplje Selo claims that there are no such lists.
„Everyone can decide whether they want to go and honor President Vucic in Mitrovica. Officially, we have yet to receive the information on when he is coming and where. We were not obliged to make the lists of those who want or do not want to go,“ Ljubisa Karadzic told RTV Kim.
This is not the first time that employees in public institutions financed by the Republic of Serbia living in Kosovo were pressured to attend meetings at which the keynote speaker is the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
„An organised welcome of any official of the Republic of Serbia has become common practice, which is repeated with slightly different methods. All this is done in order to create a false image of support of any policy coming from Belgrade,“ said the Executive Director of the Center for Peace and Tolerance Nenad Maksimovic.
RTV Kim recalled that in January of this year, the last time Aleksandar Vucic visited Kosovo, employees in Serbian municipalities and other companies were required to attend the event in Laplje Selo. In March last year, the attendance of state institutions’ employees at a gathering of the Serbian Progressive Party in Leposavic was also organized.
The organizers, members of Srpska Lista, who are also government representatives, both at a local and central level in Kosovo, later denied that the attendance was „a work commitment“.
Situation same in the North as well
Prior to today’s RTV Kim report from central Kosovo, the Abbot of Visoki Decani monastery Sava Janjic publicly warned of the pressure placed on the employees:
„We receive calls from worried people from schools. They have to send a list of all school employees due to the attendance at the upcoming meeting on September 9th in Zubin Potok. On Monday, lists of all those who will not go will be submitted. The order comes from an important state institution. People, this is a return to communism,“ he posted on social networks. The Abbot has been warning of a possible exodus of Serbian people and the suffering of Orthodox sanctities if the scenario of partition is realized – as the public sees what the two Presidents in Belgrade and Pristina are calling „ethnic delimitation“ or „border correction“.
Daily newspaper Danas, Nova srpska politicka misao and several other portals also reported on the allegedly organized departure to the rally, including the alleged list from some institutions.
A university professor and politician Rada Trajkovic also warned of the pressure on employees.
KoSSev collected almost identical testimonies from employees in North Mitrovica and Zvecan in the past few days – that „Sunday is a mandatory working day“. As per more testimonies, the employees with Serbian state institutions are obliged to sign the attendance list. They claim that their immediate superiors are placing particular pressure on those who have already declared themselves as non-attending. More sources claimed that the superiors are asking employees to take their friends or family members with them on Sunday. Such news follows the meeting of the municipal leadership and the management of Serbian state public enterprises in North Kosovo.
None of the local officials and institutional representatives have either confirmed or denied these allegations so far.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
