Paunović, a senior figure in the Socialist Party of Serbia—the political vehicle once led by the late dictator Milošević—offered the incendiary remark during a television interview. Though she later attempted to qualify her statement by claiming she meant the expulsion of those who did not identify as Yugoslav citizens rather than mass killing, the damage was instantaneous. She specifically targeted members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, arguing they should have been eliminated with lethal force.
Serbian Minister’s Ethnic Cleansing Remark Sparks Regional Crisis
“If I had been Slobodan Milošević, I would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo in 1998.” With this admission, Serbian Minister for Public Administration Snežana Paunović has ignited a firestorm across the Balkans, dredging up the darkest chapters of the 1990s and triggering an immediate diplomatic ban from Kosovo officials.
Kosovo’s interior ministry responded by declaring the minister a persona non grata. Andin Hoti, the Kosovan Minister for Social Affairs, condemned the rhetoric as a direct echo of the ideology that fueled the 1998 conflict. During that brutal period, Serbian forces killed over 13,000 people, the vast majority being ethnic Albanians. Paunović’s comments serve as a grim reminder of the unresolved tensions between Belgrade and Pristina, further stalling Western-backed efforts to normalize relations between the two nations.
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