Serbian Orthodox Church Files Criminal Complaint Against Selim Pacolli

The Diocese of Raška and Prizren of the Serbian Orthodox Church has filed a criminal complaint today with the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office in Pristina against Selim Pacolli, a senior official of the “New Kosovo Alliance” (AKR) party. The complaint concerns the criminal offense of inciting discord and intolerance. Pacolli, in two separate posts on his Facebook profile, initially called for the execution of an “Operation Storm” against the Serbian population—a term unequivocally associated by the Serbian people with ethnic cleansing. In a subsequent post, he escalated his rhetoric by making serious allegations against the Serbian Orthodox Church, branding it the “main instigator” of alleged “Chetnik bands” that, he claimed, “killed and burned during an Orthodox holiday.”

The Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo and Metohija has consistently opposed all forms of violence and has actively provided assistance to those in need, regardless of their ethnic or religious background—a fact recognized on numerous occasions by prominent international representatives. Consequently, such baseless and inflammatory accusations amount to hate speech by a political figure and represent a severe defamation aimed at inciting violence.

This kind of rhetoric not only deepens existing divisions and incites further criminal acts against the Serbian Orthodox Church and its faithful but is also wholly unacceptable in any society that seeks to portray itself as democratic and oriented toward a European future. Particularly concerning is the fact that these statements have resonated solely within the Serbian public, while other segments of Kosovo society have remained silent. This silence suggests that such incidents have become so normalized that they no longer provoke attention. It is a stark indicator of the actual state of a society whose officials publicly advocate for tolerance and coexistence while often tacitly overlooking hate speech or fostering an atmosphere of collective blame.

We hereby call upon international actors to respond and closely monitor the actions of Kosovo’s institutions, especially its judiciary. It is critical to observe whether this behavior will be appropriately sanctioned or whether—as has often been the case—a lack of consequences or the imposition of unacceptably lenient penalties will serve as implicit approval for further dissemination of hatred and the creation of an environment conducive to new crimes against Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Finally, it is time to ask what kind of society has been built in Kosovo and Metohija over the past 25 years. Does this society contribute to fostering trust and mutual coexistence among all citizens, or does it fail to provide the fundamental conditions for living in peace and mutual respect, irrespective of ethnic or religious origin?