I remember my parents' stories and my grandparents' stories about tear gas and fear and police stations and beatings. This is not what we struggled for. This is not what we fought for.

Something fundamental was broken over the weekend. I saw images of police officers kicking people on the ground. I saw a line of police officers trampling on seated protesters. I saw photos of a man with no hands sitting in a police car under arrest. I saw a reporter thrown to the ground for trying to take a photo of an officer beating a handcuffed protester. I saw a man with bandages on his arms from being handcuffed too tightly. I saw a face with the marks of a boot on it. I've heard stories of beatings at police stations and legs being broken. Our police did this. Our government did this.

This needs to be the beginning of the end. The end of a government that calls every protest a grab for power, and the end of an international presence that preaches democracy but demands silence. Too much has happened for us to turn into this.

I thank Vetevendosje for trying to give us back our dignity, and for reminding this government that the parliament of the Republic of Kosovo reigns supreme here. The people of this country gave their orders through their elected members of parliament: either trade between Kosovo and Serbia will take place on the basis of reciprocity, or there will be no trade at all.

This is not about nationalism. You don't have be a nationalist to believe that free and fair trade should in fact be free and fair trade. You don't have to be a nationalist to believe that it isn't right to import the  majority of your products from a country that doesn't recognize you, doesn't respect you, and would invade again if given half a chance. You don't have to be a nationalist to believe that it isn't right to reach an agreement on free trade between Serbia and Kosovo, only to have Kosovar products be turned back at the border for not being Serbian. You don't have to be a nationalist to understand that it isn't fair of Thaci to ignore the parliament's demand not to import Serbian products until the ban on Kosovar products is lifted. It isn't right that our constitutionally protected right to peacefully protest can be denied by the police force on the orders of Thaci's government. It isn't right that Serbs in the north can build barricades with impunity while any meaningful anti-government protest in the rest of Kosovo is stifled. The people who were trampled and beaten at Merdare and Dheu i Bardhe were not angry nationalists, they were ordinary citizens who are tired of being ignored and patronized.

The reaction of the police and this government was a show of power, a warning to never disobey again. If we care at all about this republic and the dignity of the people living in it, we need to disobey, again and again. This country belongs to the people living in it, and not to people who sit in offices in Prishtina, Belgrade or Brussels. I think it's time to reclaim it.

The article was originally written in English.  
Photo Credit: Atdhe Mulla
 
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