Milan Vasic: They Gave Me a Paper With the Rules

Milan Vasic, an actor and singer, has described for the first time what happened before he stepped in front of worshippers at the Holy Archangels Monastery near Prizren. Speaking on RTS morning television on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, he said officers called him in for an interview and handed him a sheet of paper with written rules for his performance.

The interview was led by a commander of the so called Kosovo police, with five or six other officers present. The concert was scheduled for Sunday, July 26, the feast day of Archangel Gabriel, and roughly 3,000 people gathered in the monastery courtyard.

“Govorili su mi šta smem, šta ne smem da pevam, daju mi papir sa pravilima ponašanja” (They told me what I may and may not sing, they give me a paper with rules of conduct)

This was not spoken advice. It was a list. Vasic’s car was searched at the entrance to the monastery grounds.

What was on the sheet of rules?

According to Vasic, the restrictions covered three things:

• national flags
• songs that mention Metohija
• any song that mentions Kosovo in a negative context

That removed most of what audiences in Kosovo and Metohija associate with his name. Vasic says he dropped every one of his own songs that mentions Kosovo or Metohija, among them “Ja sam momče sa Kosova” and “Metohijo, moja avlijo”. He asked the officer the obvious question.

“Ja sam pitao komandira da li smem uopšte da pevam. Ali ako ja pomenem nešto od zabranjenog, oni će reagovati, prekidaju koncert” (I asked the commander whether I was allowed to sing at all. But if I mention anything on the banned list, they react, they stop the concert)

Instead of his own repertoire he sang old Serbian folk songs and danced in Serbian folk costume. Video of that set surfaced on Wednesday, the same day he spoke about the rules.

Snipers across the way

While he was at the monastery he saw snipers positioned across from where he was standing. He kept that part short.

“Video sam snajperiste preko puta mene” (I saw snipers across from me)

The feast day liturgy was served by Bishop Teodosije of Raska and Prizren. Vasic has been performing in Kosovo and Metohija for five years.

Why this follows a story we already covered

We reported earlier on Kosovo police moving in among worshippers at the Holy Archangels Monastery. What was known then was what happened in the courtyard. What is known now is what came before it: the interview with the commander, written rules, a vehicle search, and a list of songs that could not be heard from the stage.

Vasic did not present the performance as a political act.

“moj cilj nije bio da tog dana pokazujem koliki sam Srbin” (my goal that day was not to show how much of a Serb I am)

What happened after the concert drew more coverage in Serbian media than the concert itself, because reports focused on him being taken in by police. The singer himself sums up the day in the courtyard in one sentence.

“nije bilo nijednog incidenta” (there was not a single incident)

One detail is easy to miss here. A song about a place was sung a hundred meters from that place, and the name of the place was on the banned list. Everything else, the costume, the old songs, the 3,000 people in the courtyard, settled around that single line on a sheet of paper.