Brnabic: Freedom House published a disgraceful report

Anyone who understands political circumstances, human rights, media freedoms and the rule of law at all, knows that this is not true - says the prime minister

The assessment of Freedom House that Serbia has fallen behind the most during the last year, while Pristina has made the most progress, is disgraceful, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic has said.

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She said that anyone who understands political circumstances, human rights, media freedoms and the rule of law at all, knows that this is not true.

"During 2021, we concluded the public debate and completed the process of amending the Constitution. On January 16, we held a successful referendum, which for the first time in the history of Serbia ensured complete independence of the prosecution and the judiciary," Brnabic recalled.

On the other hand, she said that last year in Kosovo and Metohija, the number of attacks on Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija increased by 20%.

All that, she stressed, culminated in the fact that on January 16, Pristina banned Serbs from participating in the referendum, and after that on April 3 in the elections.

"Pristina has banned basic human rights, the right to vote. And then you have Freedom House, which says that Serbia has fallen behind the most, but that Kosovo has made the most progress, and our media, which publishes this eagerly," said the prime minister.

She said that these are the same media outlets that have been announcing for years that Serbia is on the gray list of Council of Europe GRECO groups of countries fighting corruption, because we were on the list of globally unsatisfactory countries, while when a new report appeared in March that said that Serbia has improved tremendously and is no longer on that list, no one published a word about that.

"So much for being unbiased, and the influence of various international organizations on what is happening in the Balkans and who is represented in what way and in the end praised for what they are doing. The Freedom House report praises Pristina for depriving Serbs of their basic human right to vote," the prime minister said.

Speaking about the situation in the southern province, Brnabic said it is complex, primarily due to Pristina's behavior.

"Pristina does not want to negotiate. That is clear to Washington, Brussels, Paris, London, Berlin. We'll see what to do regarding that. Nine years have passed since the Brussels Agreement, we still do not have the ZSO, and Pristina openly says that it will not implement the Brussels Agreement and that it does not exist for them," the prime minister stressed.

She added that her government, as a serious and responsible government that respects international treaties and agreements, will wait to see what those who are co-signatories of that agreement, primarily the EU, will do.

"Lajcak is now in Belgrade, I certainly want to hear what he will do next," said Brnabic.

Vulin also reacts to the report

"Those who consider the fake state of Kosovo to be a symbol of democracy, don't consider cocaine to be a drug," said the leader of the Movement of Socialists and Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin, commenting on the Freedom House report which states that the false state of Kosovo has made the greatest progress in the field of democracy.

(Telegraf.rs)