PREVENTING POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS EXTREMISM IN MITROVICA: COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVES

Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, today, on 19th of October 2017, organized the roundtable on implementation of “Strategy and Action Plan on Prevention of Violent Extremism and Radicalization Leading to Terrorism 2015-2020” that was focused on Preventing political and religious extremism in Mitrovica. This event brought together representatives from the local level of both South and North Mitrovica , civil society, media and International Missions in Kosovo .

Invited as panelists were:

Mr.Besim Beka– Municipal representative from the Mitrovica South

Mr.Veroljub Petronic – Municipal representative from the Mitrovica North

Mr.Fitim Zahiti– Representative from Kosovo Police South Station

Mr.Burim Veliu - Representative of Islamic Community in Mitrovica

Mr.Aleksandar Djikic –  Civil Society representative

Mr.Skender Perteshi - KCSS

The aim of this activity was to discuss about the current engagement of the governmental and non-governmental organizations in cooperation with Municipality of Mitrovicai on preventing the violent extremism and the challenges that both communities living in Mitrovica face.

The discussion had focus on:

• Cooperation between State and Non-State actors in Prevention of Violent Extremism;

• Socio-Economic factors as a key element in preventing violent extremism;

• Achievements and challenges in preventing violent extremism in the municipality of Mitrovica;

• Cooperation between North and South Mitrovica in preventing violent extremism;

• The need for greater cooperation with civil society organizations of the Serbian community.

Mr. Skender Perteshi presented the KCSS work on PVE and organizations contribution in drafting the National Strategy and expressed the readiness of KCSS in cooperating with the local level on PVE.

Mr.Besim beka, South Mitrovica Municipality representative spoke about the achievements and challenges of Mitrovica Municipality on PVE and emphasized the importance of the close cooperation between all actors.

Mr. Veroljub Petronic Northern Mitrovica representative estimates that it is necessary to involve the Serbian community in Kosovo in monitoring the implementation of the Strategy and Action Plan on Prevention of Violent Extremism and Radicalization Leading to Terrorism 2015-2020. Mr. Petrovic emphasizes that NGO-s operating in Northern Mitrovica should be involved in more activities, especially those at the local level, because they have sufficient capacity to contribute to the prevention of violent extremism in local level.

This activity is organized within the framework of the three-year project titled “Further support to Kosovo institutions in the fight against organized crime, corruption and violent extremism” which is implemented by B & S Europe, commissioned by Kosovo’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and funded by Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) of European Commission. The Kosovar Centre for Security Studies is the B&S Subcontractor for implementation of the Component 4 of this project which deals specifically with supporting Kosovo central and municipal institutions in implementing the abovementioned strategy.