During the commemoration of the anniversary of the Battle of Kosovo on 28 June 2026, the Kosovo Police detained at least 36 ethnic Serbs, citizens of Serbia, Kosovo, and Montenegro, including one minor, on allegations of disturbing public order and peace. According to testimonies from some of those detained, as well as reports by several Kosovo civil society organizations, the detainees were subjected to police brutality, violations of their freedom of expression, and denial of their rights to legal defense and an effective remedy. We welcome the decision of the Ombudsperson Institution in Kosovo to launch an investigation into allegations of police misconduct toward the detained individuals.
At the same time, a poster appeared outside a bakery in Kruševac owned by an ethnic Albanian, calling on citizens to boycott businesses owned by Albanians. The poster explicitly cited the events at Gazimestan on 28 June 2026 as justification and used an ethnic slur against Albanians. We strongly condemn these chauvinistic messages directed at the bakery owner and call on the competent authorities of the Republic of Serbia to respond without delay and inform the public of the measures taken. We welcome the fact that both the City Administration of Kruševac and the Protector of Citizens condemned hate speech. However, the City Administration’s of Kruševac in the statement failed to explicitly identify the incident and to name the targeted community by the attack, leaving room for different interpretations and diminishing the importance of an unequivocal institutional condemnation of ethnically motivated discrimination. In cases of hate speech targeting national minorities, public institutions have an obligation to clearly identify both the nature of the incident and the community affected.
These two cases are not isolated incidents but rather reflect the continuation of discriminatory practices, hate speech, and attacks against minority communities in both Serbia and Kosovo. The normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina cannot be sustainable if violations of the rights of Serbs in Kosovo and Albanians in Serbia are tolerated or downplayed. Both governments have a responsibility to consistently protect the rights of all citizens, regardless of their ethnic background, ensure effective protection against discrimination and hate speech, and demonstrate unequivocally that ethnically motivated incidents will not be tolerated.
