Serbia Urges EU, US to Prevent Kosovo from Terrorising Ethnic Serbs

Belgrade (ANTARA) - Director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petar Petkovic has called on the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy to prevent the authorities in Kosovo from terrorising ethnic Serbs. According to a RIA Novosti report from Belgrade on Thursday, the request was made in a letter sent to the head of the EU mission to Serbia, the EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, and the embassies of the aforementioned countries. Petkovic urged Western representatives not to remain silent and to demonstrate that the values they proclaim also apply to the Serbian people in the breakaway territory of Kosovo and the province of Metohija. He stated that he would inform relevant international organisations and other actors about the situation to ensure full transparency. The appeal was made in response to the detention of four young Serbs by Kosovo police in northern Kosovska Mitrovica. They were attempting to restore a mural depicting the late Patriarch Pavle of Serbia and Metropolitan Amfilohije, which had been covered over by municipal workers with police assistance in August of the previous year. In April, the Serbian Foreign Ministry stated that approximately 20 percent of ethnic Serbs had left Kosovo and Metohija in a short period. In 2025 alone, 137 hate crimes targeting Serbs were recorded in the province. In June, authorities in Kosovo continued the dismantling of several Serbian institutions in the province. On 16 June, municipal inspectors in Kosovo closed a health clinic in Kosovska Kamenica that operated within the Serbian healthcare system. A Serbian clinic in the village of Staro Gracko was damaged in June, but the incident was never investigated. In April, several health clinics in Suvo Grlo and Banje were closed, and Serbian flags and signs were removed from schools in Banje and Srbica. Arrests of directors of educational institutions increased after police detained two Serbian school directors in Kosovska Kamenica on 11 June on suspicion of possessing illegal weapons. At the end of May, seven directors of medical and state institutions were arrested over the course of a month on charges of pressuring voters ahead of the elections held in Kosovo on 7 June, sparking peaceful protests from staff.