Serbian police claim opposition lying about new residents in Belgrade

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The Serbian Internal Affairs Ministry (MUP) on Monday denied claims by the opposition Party of Freedom and Justice (SSP) that a large number of people from the Republika Srpska (RS) in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina had been granted residence in Belgrade.

SSP officials said last week that a number of people had been registered as resident in a derelict building waiting to be torn down and a non-existent building in the central Vracar municipality of the Serbian capital. Social media posts also featured videos claiming to show people from the RS being taken to Serbia to register residency allegedly in order to be able to vote in the April elections.

A MUP press release said that “the number of changes of residence in Belgrade is not greatly different than last year …. and cannot affect the results of the coming elections”. It added that the claims are “a series of organized lie campaigns … directedd at the MUP and to create conflicts between Serbs in Serbia and Serbs from the RS”.

Bosnian Serb political leader Milorad Dodik said that the Serbian opposition sees the RS as a foreign place instead of urging the authorities to grant the Bosnian Serbs automatic citizenship of Serbia and all possible rights.

The press release claimed that SSP official Borko Stefanovic was lying when he said that there are at least 15 people to an apartment at two addresses in the municipality, adding that there were no new residents registered at any of the addresses reported by the SSP this year.