The Belgrade-backed Serb List (SL) said it wants to send a clear message to Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti that “the Serbs will not take part in the coming fake census organized by him to confirm his shameful success in expelling them.”

The SL said that “given the years-long repression by Albin Kurti’s regime against our people in Kosovo and Metohija, aimed at ethnically cleansing these parts of everything Serbian,” taking part in processes organized by Kurti would be the greatest humiliation. (Kosovo and Metohija is the official name for what the Serbian authorities consider to be the country’s southern province)

“At a time when this very Kurti has denied the Serbs the right to pensions, salaries hindered the normal functioning of healthcare, and social benefits, revoked voting rights, arrested and persecuted Serbs, occupied municipalities by force, militarized the north of Kosovo and Metohija, banned vaccination and delivery of medicines, prevented the delivery of food and supplies from central Serbia, and cancelled all the reached agreements,” the SL added.

By cancelling the agreements, they have denied the Kosovo Serbs the rights guaranteed under these agreements.

The Serb List said that “with this census, Kurti wants to additionally attack Serbia with some demands for war reparations” which additionally discourages the Serbs from being part of this process.

The SL called on the international community to stop “supporting the persecution of the Serbs with their silence and hiding behind ‘understanding,’ and modest, anaemic statements.”

“In these circumstances of everyday repression of our people and without the return of 250,000 displaced persons, the census would be nothing but legalization of the ethnic cleansing carried out against our people since 1999. Maybe Kurti and you don’t mind, and maybe you have force at your disposal, but the Serbs will not accept to be accomplices in this dirty business,” said the Serb List.