Pupin Initiative Seeks Stronger KFOR Before Hague Ruling

The Pupin Initiative published a report today, September 13, titled “Silence Is Not Safety: Rights Before Politics in Kosovo,” warning that a drop in reported incidents against Serbs in Kosovo does not prove that safety has actually improved. The KoSSev news portal carried the report at nine in the morning, and Radio Kosovska Mitrovica Sever followed at 12:20 p.m. In the document, the organization calls on KFOR, EULEX, OSCE, the European Union and the US Embassy to preemptively strengthen their presence in Serb settlements, returnee communities, cemeteries and monasteries ahead of the first instance verdict from the Specialist Chambers in The Hague, scheduled for September 16.

According to the report, international assessments of the security situation in Kosovo increasingly rely on the number of recorded incidents, even though that figure primarily reflects how willing residents are to report incidents to institutions in the first place.

Why Fewer Reports Do Not Mean Greater Safety

The report’s authors argue the problem arises when residents no longer believe a complaint will lead to any outcome, or when the very institution they would need to approach is the one whose conduct they are questioning. They describe this as a closed loop: fewer reports produce fewer recorded incidents, which is then read as an improvement in safety, and that reading can in turn be used to justify scaling back international presence.

The report cites testimony from Jovana Radosavljevic (her role is not specified in the available sources):

When residents see that complaints rarely lead to any judicial outcome, they gradually stop filing them. That in turn artificially lowers the visible numbers and creates a false impression of improvement, instead of showing the real scale of the problem.

Her assessment, according to the report, explains why a drop in statistics should not be read as proof of stability.

Gazimestan and the Case of Nenad Raskovic

As examples of distrust in institutions, the Pupin Initiative points to the events at Gazimestan on June 28 and the case of Nenad Raskovic from the village of Dren, near Zubin Potok. On Vidovdan, the St. Vitus Day holiday, 37 people were detained at Gazimestan, 36 of whom were fined 700 euros each, with some also handed multi-year bans from entering Kosovo. One of those detained, whose identity the report does not disclose, claims he was physically and psychologically mistreated by police and initially denied a lawyer, a phone call, water and access to a toilet. The report explicitly labels that claim as an allegation under investigation, not an established fact.

Raskovic was seriously injured during a police intervention at his home and was treated in Belgrade. Kosovo’s Police Inspectorate opened a preliminary investigation and, on August 18, recommended the suspension of two police officers over suspected abuse of office. Even so, the report cites that move as an example of oversight mechanisms working when they are actually triggered:

This is a Kosovo institution acting in favor of a Serb citizen.

The authors add that trust will only be restored once the proceedings are concluded and the outcome is documented publicly.

Visoki Decani Waited Eight Years for a Ruling

A separate section of the report is devoted to the Serbian Orthodox Church. It recalls that Kosovo’s Constitutional Court confirmed back in 2016 the right of the Visoki Decani Monastery to 24 hectares of land, yet that ruling was only enforced in 2024, eight years later. The monastery’s abbot, Archimandrite Sava Janjic, argues in the report that religious freedom cannot be reduced to simply being allowed to hold services:

If a monastery under UNESCO protection, backed by a clear Constitutional Court ruling and international attention, has to wait eight years for that ruling to be enforced, it is fair to ask what less visible church communities, parishes, families and individuals without that kind of international attention can expect.

The Hague Ruling and the Bridge on the Ibar

Another section of the report addresses the first instance verdict the Specialist Chambers in The Hague are set to hand down on September 16 against Hashim Thaci, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi. The Pupin Initiative does not prejudge the outcome of the proceedings, but warns:

Regardless of what verdict is reached, it is realistic to expect a heightened risk of incidents targeting Serbs and Serb holy sites in the days surrounding September 16.

The organization is therefore appealing to KFOR, EULEX, OSCE, the European Union and the US Embassy to preemptively increase their presence in Serb settlements, returnee communities, cemeteries and monasteries. Its concrete recommendation is to temporarily postpone any change to the security regime on the Ibar bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica, as well as in the protected zones around the monasteries, for the duration of the anticipated period of heightened risk.

The report also addresses the announced change to KFOR’s deployment, including the gradual withdrawal of its permanent presence on the bridge. The authors stress this does not amount to a full pullout: KFOR commander Major General Ozkan Ulutas announced on August 25 that presence would actually be increased in certain areas, including North Mitrovica and northern Kosovo. (Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also addressed KFOR’s role in Kosovo that same day, speaking at Pester; we cover that separately.) Still, the Pupin Initiative asks who takes over the tasks KFOR steps back from, noting that if responsibility for security on the bridge and around Visoki Decani shifts toward Kosovo police, any guarantee of impartiality would then rest with an institution whose own conduct is already the subject of ombudsman and Police Inspectorate investigations.

Who Is Behind the Report

The report is signed by the Pupin Initiative, whose executive director is Vuk Velebit. The organization stresses that it represents no political party or government, and instead advocates for independent verification of rights violation claims and an incident reporting system that would be independent of the very institution whose conduct is in question. The document’s closing assessment reads:

The measure of success is not the number of reactions after incidents, but the absence of incidents.

Until September 16, when the Hague ruling is expected, it remains an open question whether KFOR, EULEX, OSCE, the European Union and the US Embassy will heed the recommendation and postpone the planned changes to the security regime on the Ibar bridge and around the monasteries.