The Director of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, Petar Petkovic, has claimed that the number of interethnic incidents targeting Serbs has increased in Kosovo.
Petkovic made this claim in a Twitter post, to which he attached a photo of the Serbian cemetery in the village of Kishnica, Gracanica, which was reported to have been damaged on Saturday (December 25).
This Serbian official assesses this event as an interethnic incident, without any basis in fact. Petkovic goes even further, presenting unfounded data that recently "the number of interethnic incidents, targeting Kosovo Serbs, has increased by over 50%."
The content of Petar Petkovic's post translated into Albanian:
Is this supposed to be the oasis of peace and tolerance you speak of? @albinkurti
Since you came to power, the number of incidents targeting Serbs has increased by more than 50%!
Even dead Serbs are not spared, as evidenced by yesterday's images of the destroyed graves from Kishnica.
Link to this post in English:
As can be seen in this post, Petkovic has made several unfounded claims.
Petkovic, through this post, alludes a priori that the damage to these cemeteries is of an interethnic nature. Meanwhile, the Kosovo Police, in a statement to the media, has not provided any information about the nature of this incident. (see here Kosovo Police statement regarding the incident)
In addition, Petkovic uses this occasion to make another claim, which is the increase in the number of interethnic incidents, where the target is Kosovo Serbs. However, this claim of Petkovic is not based on any facts.
In most of the reports that hibrid.info has managed to obtain from international, local and regional organizations (UNMIK, OSCE, ATRC, New Perspektiva) that deal with interethnic relations in Kosovo, a figure of 50% increase in incidents of this type is not presented, as this Serbian official claims. (see reports here, here, here and here)
This unfounded statement by Petkovic has also been published in several Serbian-language media outlets within Kosovo, but also in Serbia. (see examples) here and here)
Analyze:
The claims that Petar Petkovic made about the attack on the Serbian cemetery in the village of Kishnica and the increase in the number of interethnic incidents in Kosovo, targeting the Serbian community, were made without being based on any facts.
For this reason, hibrid.info considers this post by Petkovic to be "Disinformation".
Reasoning:
A “Disinformation” rating is given to media reporting that contains a “mix” of inaccurate sources or even half-truthful content. This rating will also address reports that have incorrect attributions or headlines that do not reflect the text in terms of information accuracy.