Opposition MP from Kosovo: Belgrade Disinterested in Repatriation of Kosovo Serbs

Slavisa Ristic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC/DS)

Slavisa Ristic, the single oppositional MP in the Serbian National Assembly from Kosovo and Metohija, said on June 22 that young people are leaving Kosovo on a daily basis due to “Belgrade’s obvious neglect and a lack of job opportunities.”

In an interview for BETA, Ristic stated that in recent years – “ever since Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbian Progressive Party came into power” – there has been a noticeable drain of young people from the north of Kosovo. “This departure of Serbs has been particularly pronounced in the wake of the Brussels Agreement, when nearly all Serb institutions in northern Kosovo were shut down,” said Ristic, who ran for MP on Marinka Tepic’s United for the Victory of Serbia ticket.

Asked whether the Kosovo Ministry of Community and Return, which is run by the Serb List, has had any effect on repatriating Serbs to Kosovo, Ristic replied that the process of returning emigrant Serbs became a lost cause as soon as it was taken over by the Ministry. “[the Ministry employees] are nothing but props amidst Kosovo’s institutions, merely extensions of the Serbian Progressive Party in Kosovo and Metohija,” he said.

Ristic elaborated by stating that the central Serbian government and its Office for Kosovo and Metohija have done virtually nothing to repatriate Kosovo Serbs, which fits perfectly with Pristina’s goals regarding the territory’s Serb population. Ristic added that the responsibility for the exodus of Kosovo Serbs lies almost squarely on the shoulders of the international community.

According to official reports by the Kosovo Ministry of Community and Return, which is headed by Serb List President Goran Rakic, following the Kosovo War of 1999, 226,418 Kosovo citizens left their homes while only 29,108 of them have returned over the past two decades.