On February 28, the Self-Determination Movement (LVV) on its official website Facebook, published a graphic that spoke about the improvement in the sense of security of Serbs in Kosovo.
According to LVV, security had increased with the fight against crime. "The fight against crime and smuggling, the destruction of drug and cryptocurrency laboratories, criminal and terrorist gangs in the north of the country has made the Serbian community feel much safer in the state of Kosovo. This is also evidenced by the latest UNDP report," LVV claimed in their post.
The data was extracted from the UNDP, namely from the "Public Pulse" survey, a survey conducted by the United Nations Development Programme in Kosovo (UNDP) every six months and which touches on socio-economic, political, security and environmental issues.
According to UNDP, the latest survey findings showed an overall decline in the sense of safety among respondents, with 79.73% feeling safe when out on the streets, compared to 82.85% in April 2023. Meanwhile, 37.6% of Serb respondents felt safe in Kosovo.
However, the ruling party, the Vetevendosje Movement (LVV), chose to promote the increased security of Serbs in Kosovo in the graphic by presenting only some selective data.
They published the data from the latest report, launched on February 28, which shows 37.6% of Serbs satisfied with the security situation, followed by those from April 2023 and November 2022. Comparing them, it appears that the sense of security of Serbs in Kosovo has improved significantly.
The graph published on the official Facebook page of the Vetëvendosje Movement
Public Pulse Summary 25, according to UNDP, is based on data collected from November 8 to November 27, 2023 and reflects the opinion of more than 1,300 respondents aged over 18 from all communities in Kosovo.
The first manipulation by LVV, which appears to have been done by misinterpreting UNDP figures, is in the latest data, which it presents as data from 2024, despite the fact that Public Pulse 25 clearly shows that the survey was conducted in November of last year and the data is for November 2023.
Meanwhile, the other manipulation concerns the selection of only the last three reports (November 2022, April 2023 and November 2023), excluding data for other years, as they contradict their claims that the Government's actions have affected the sense of security of Kosovo Serbs.
But UNDP reports tell a different story.
Although 2018 saw a small percentage of Kosovo Serbs feeling safe, with only 4.8% and 10.4% feeling safe, Serb respondents began to feel safer in 2019. This year's two reports show an increase in this regard — 16.2% and 27.4%, respectively.
Respondents continued to feel safer in 2022 and 2021. In the Public Pulse for 2020, in both published reports, 47% and 46.2% of Serbs felt safe, respectively, while this figure reached 50.9% in the second half of 2021 report.
And for 2022, unlike what LVV presented, the security of Kosovo Serbs surveyed was 15.3% for the second half of the year. Just six months earlier, this figure was 46.1%. So, the decline occurred during the current government.
In general, since December 2020, in every UNDP survey, the feeling of safety among Serbs has been higher than in these last three measurements selected by LVV, except for May 2021, when only 34.8 percent of the community declared that they feel safe.
What contributed to the decline in the sense of security among Serbs to 15% in November 2022?
On September 20, 2021, the Government of Kosovo, led by Albin Kurti, decided on the measure of reciprocity for license plates with the government of Serbia. This measure meant that upon entering the territory of Kosovo, drivers of vehicles with Serbian license plates, they would have to get trial plates, valid for 60 days and costing five euros.
However, this measure provoked dissatisfaction among the Serbian population in Kosovo, who blocked the roads leading to the border crossing points with Serbia, in Jarinje and Bërnjak.
To ease tensions, an interim agreement on license plates was reached on September 30 of that year, with the mediation of the European Union. This agreement, which was intended to be in effect for six months until working groups from Kosovo and Serbia could find a long-term solution, required drivers with Kosovo and Serbian license plates to place stickers on their license plates with the national symbols on them whenever they crossed the border between the two countries.
License plates were a hot topic in 2022. After protests and road blockades by Serbs, the issue came to a head in November, when the Serbian List – the largest Serb party in Kosovo – decided to leave the central institutions of the Republic of Kosovo, as well as the municipalities in the north of the country.
Their steps were followed by Serbian members of the Kosovo Police, the judiciary, and the prosecution in the north.
Their removal from the institutions came after the decision of the Kosovo authorities to suspend the director of the Kosovo Police for the northern region, Nenad Djuric, who had refused to implement the decision of the Kosovo Government to reprimand and fine drivers of cars that have license plates issued by Serbia with acronyms of Kosovo cities.
On November 1, the government began implementing its three-phase plan regarding the issue of re-registration of vehicles with license plates issued by Serbia.
The first phase included reprimanding drivers, the second provided for fines of up to 150 euros for those drivers, and the third for probationary license plates.
The implementation of this plan was expected to end on April 21, 2023, and, from that date, only cars with RKS license plates would be allowed in circulation.
On November 23, 2022, in the dialogue mediated by the European Union, Kosovo and Serbia reached an agreement on license plates issued by Serbian authorities for cities in Kosovo.
According to the agreement, Serbia agreed not to issue new license plates and Kosovo waived the penalties provided for in the car re-registration plan.
The decision to re-register vehicles with illegal Serbian license plates in those RKS was postponed several times, until the Serbs agreed to register them.
Thousands of Kosovo Serbs took advantage of the facilities to convert their illegal license plates to RKS. The facilities included customs duties, administrative fees at the Vehicle Registration Center, license plate fees, and fees for providing a vehicle registration certificate.
The Serbian government, a few days before the new year 2024, announced that it would recognize the license plates of the Republic of Kosovo and that they would no longer need to be covered with adhesive paper. Following this decision, the Kosovo government also took the same step, making the passage of vehicles between the two countries unhindered.
Analytical article by Agon Osmani