Right-Wing Alliance to Protest Military Exercises with NATO Members

Milica Djurdjevic Stamenkovski , Milos Jovanovic, Bosko Obradovic, Belgrade. Jan. 29 2023 (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

On June 21, the so-called Opposition in Defense of Statehood – an informal alliance between the Dveri movement, the Oath Keepers and the Movement for the Defense of Kosovo and Metohija – announced that it will hold a rally in front of Belgrade’s Church of St. Mark on St. Vitus Day, i.e. June 28, to protest the upcoming Platinum Wolf military exercises, which are scheduled to include NATO member countries.

Speaking to a press conference in front of the New Palace in Belgrade, where the president’s offices are located, Dveri leader Bosko Obradovic said that Serbia should cancel the planned exercise with NATO members and instead request an extraordinary session of the U.N. Security Council, to discuss Kosovo and Metohija.

“It is necessary to demand that the entire international community condemn the Albanian violence toward and abuse of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, to ask every country in the world – by every diplomatic means available – to take action toward the release of all Serbs arrested in the north of the province and to insist on the return of Serbian police and security forces to Kosovo and Metohija, as envisaged by the binding U.N.S.C. Resolution 1244,” Obradovic said.

The right-wing alliance further demanded the renewal of Serbian civil defense structures in the four Serb-dominated municipalities of northern Kosovo and Metohija. Their other demands include no longer allowing the Serb Ticket to speak in the name of all Serbs in the north of the province and, instead, electing new representatives for Kosovo Serbs, as well as having the president of Serbia’s National Assembly call local elections for said four northern Kosovo municipalities.

“The current regime’s policy toward Kosovo and Metohija has imploded. They no longer know what to do on the matter [so] they have fallen silent while our people are being victimized,” Obradovic stated.

According to the Dveri leader, if a special session of Parliament is not held soon, the opposition will have grounds to request the dismissal of Parliament Speaker Vladimir Orlic, considering that the session he announced for late May has yet to happen.