The presence of various types of fear - fear of uncertainty, fear of Pristinas repression, fear of the Kosovo security forces, fear of the outbreak of armed conflict, including war, is the main finding of Demostats focus groups that we organised after the event in Banjska on September 24th, a police officer of Albanian nationality and three young Serbs were killed. Our main goal was to explore the social hopes and fears among Serbs living in the north of Kosovo and Metohija.

Fear in people is what was first noticed, because many did not want to participate in Demostats focus groups, so we faced a big problem of finding participants for public opinion polls. In addition to the above findings, we detected the fact that a certain number of people are afraid of representatives of the Serbian List, which was one of the reasons why we were difficult to find interlocutors.

Along with the fears among the respondents, Demostat also noticed distrust. The high degree of distrust refers primarily to the institutions of Pristina, mostly the government led by Albin Kurti, as well as to the illegitimate local administrations that were elected after illegitimate elections in the north of Kosovo and Metohija (in these elections, let us remind you, Serbs did not participate because Pristina persistently refuses to form the Association of Serb Municipalities, which is still an obligation from the Brussels Agreement, signed in 2013.). There is also a high level of distrust in the Kosovo police service (KPS). At the same time, we detected  the trend of decreasing level of trust in the institutions of Serbia (in the official Belgrade), after the Serbs from the northern part of Kosovo and Metohija left local institutions, and this “erosion of trust” was especially intensified after the tragic events in Banjska.

On the other hand, when it comes to trust, our focus groups have shown that the Serbian community in Kosovo trusts KFOR the most, which we have recently published (https://demostat.rs/sr/vesti/ekskluziva/srbi-sa-severa-kosova-najvise-veruju-kfor-u/1876 as explained by the respondents, it is believed that this mission can provide security and security, which primarily refers to protection from Pristinas repression. Also, Serbs in Kosovo have great confidence in the Diocese of Raska-Prizren.

Demostat, through the research conducted at the level of central Serbia, found that there was no will of citizens to participate “in the war for Kosovo”. For instance, we have recently investigated which problems citizens perceive as the greatest when it comes to them personally, and we have detected that these are issues related to personal standard of living, while Kosovo is perceived by many respondents as the biggest problem of the state of Serbia.

However, among the Serbs living in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, we found a high readiness for armed resistance to Pristina, in order to protect personal security, “in order to defend their lives and homes”, which is noticeable not only among younger people, but also among older Serbs living in the area. It can be explained by the following facts:

• Illegitimate local government that was formed after illegitimate local elections in four municipalities in northern Kosovo. Pristina and Serbs who did not participate in the local elections are also responsible for the formation of the illegitimate local government in northern Kosovo, but also official Belgrade, which initiated the exit of Serbs from institutions, thus creating a kind of interregnum.
• The repressive behaviour of Pristina, which has lasted for a long time, but has intensified after the exit of Serbs from institutions.
• The main cause is Pristinas constant refusal to form the Associations of Serb Municipalities, which would allow Serbs some kind of autonomy, which is provided for in all agreements and documents, from the Ahtisaari Agreement to the Ohrid Agreement.

Research method

Discussions were conducted within two focus groups, with nine participants each. This was done after the events in Banjska that took place on September 24th this year, i.e. after the first open armed conflict between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo since the organised violence against Serbs in March 2004. On September 24th three Serbs and one Kosovo police officer were killed.