"Perhaps I am the happiest today because my Peć is still my address. Everything else is a temporary situation."
With these words, Snežana Paunović, a socialist and minister in the Government of Serbia, began an interview for TV Kurir, which was published on the International Day of Remembrance of the Genocide in Srebrenica. On that very day, Paunović said that if she had been in Slobodan Milošević's place, she would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo in 1998.
The presenter announced this interview as a conversation "about a woman who rarely talks about herself", with the aim of showing "how much childhood memories influence the decisions made by politicians at the very top of the state", alluding to the minister's place of residence - Peć in Kosovo.
"Although she comes from Peja, Snežana Paunović has never dealt with issues of importance for the Serbian community in Kosovo or the dialogue process," Dragiša Mijačić, coordinator of the Working Group of the National Convention on the European Union (NCEU) for Chapter 35, which regulates Kosovo issues, told Vreme.
Paunović, he adds, nevertheless often participated in informal meetings of parliamentarians and analysts from Serbia and Kosovo, as well as meetings of women in politics from Serbia and Kosovo. "She performed several functions in the institutional system of the temporary bodies of the Republic of Serbia in Kosovo. But her actions did not leave a significant mark on the position of the Serbian or other communities living in that area."
And the journalist Idro Seferi, who was born in Peja, tells "Vreme" that he only knew about the work of minister Snežana Paunović at the bar that there was an MP from Peja who the media wrote about because of the high travel expenses she charged for years traveling from Peja to Belgrade.
TRAVEL COSTS AND DOUBLE FUNCTIONS
Snezana Paunović found herself in the center of attention in 2021 as a member of parliament. The media reported at the time that she received around 12.000 euros for travel expenses for the Peć-Belgrade route, while in 2021 those expenses amounted to over two and a half million dinars. This was made possible by the Administrative Board's regulation at the time, according to which MPs did not have to submit fuel bills, but were paid a flat fee based solely on the mileage to their place of residence.
In the same year, CINS also wrote about how many times Snežana Paunović broke the law, because she was twice late with the declaration of assets and income, while in 2016 she added work in the Assembly to the position of director of the Peć Pharmacy, without checking with the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption whether there was a conflict of interest. Thus, before she became a minister in the Government of Serbia in 2025, she received a salary both as a member of parliament and as the director of this pharmacy institution.
However, according to the media, as of 2021, the Peć Pharmacy Institution does not officially exist. The documents show that the request to be deleted from the register of health institutions was submitted by Snežana Paunović in the same year, but she continued to receive a salary as an acting official until April 15, 2025, when she became a minister.
In the official biography on the SPS website, it is stated that in the period from 2006 to 2013, Snežana Paunović held the position of Coordinator of SO Đakovica and SO Dečana, to which she was appointed on two occasions by the Decision of the Government of the Republic of Serbia. She has been a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia since 1992, and was a member of the Main Board of the SPS for several mandates. Since 2012, she has also held the position of secretary of the Serbian Women's Forum.
Snezana Paunović also has experience in the boards of state enterprises. She was the president of the Supervisory Board of "Nikola Tesla" Airport and a member of the Assembly of Shareholders of the State Lottery of Serbia. Her list of positions includes membership in the Board of Directors of the Agency for the Development of Small and Medium Enterprises, and membership in the Board of Directors of "YUQS", a company that deals with certification.
She is an economist by profession, completed her studies at the University of Pristina, and was born in 1975 in Peja.
EXPERT FOR "POLITIZED TOPICS"
Snežana Paunović, her colleagues from the Assembly told Vreme, particularly stood out during the post-election crisis in Zaječar. The minister then declared that there were no irregularities even though the local Assembly was not formed. It turned out that the High Court annulled the confirmation of the councilor's mandate, but Paunović refused to propose calling for elections, and she was explicit that there was no need to introduce the Provisional Authority itself. It turned out that there was a need for it, so it was also introduced later.
Just as she said in an interview to Kurir that the mistreatment of Albanians in Kosovo is their spin, she also declared that the reform of the unified voter list is a politicized topic. Snežana Paunović used an identical argument and construction when she commented on the decision of the High Court in Zaječar.
WHAT PEOPLE IN KOSOVO SAY
Regarding Minister Paunović's statement that Milosevic should have ethnically cleansed Kosovo in 1998, Dragiša Mijačić, a native of Kosovska Mitrovica, tells "Vreme" that he spoke with Serbs in Kosovo.
"Citizens are outraged by her statement, but also afraid for their fate because they know that it will serve as an excuse for further repressive actions by the Government of Kosovo," says Mijačić. "Minister Paunović's words create a framework in the Kosovo public that every action of the Kosovo authorities and the Kosovo police towards the Serbs is justified, whether it is in accordance with the law or not."
Journalist Idro Seferi also says that there is no Albanian in Kosovo who did not react negatively to this statement, and that the consequences are multiple.
"Such a statement leaves no one indifferent," he says and explains that it can only make relations difficult. She describes that there are those who say: "All Serbs are like that, but we have an army and NATO, Serbia can't do anything to us", but also people who think that, after such messages, "there is no need to make peace with the Serbs", and Paunović's statement "reminded of an already seen scenario".
"Unfortunately, the situation after the war was not easy neither for the Serbs nor for other communities. But now Kosovo has a certain stability and it is very important that people, civil society and all other actors pay a little more attention to reconciliation, and at the same time to facing the past", says Seferi and adds that, unfortunately, whoever tries to talk about it even a little - is often attacked and lynched.
Other lies of Snežana Paunović
That Kosovo should have been ethnically cleansed of Albanians in 1998 was the most difficult statement made by the minister in the Government of Serbia, Snežana Paunović, in an interview for Kurir. Precisely because of that sentence, many citizens of Serbia, as well as world officials, are demanding her resignation in order for her to bear responsibility for what she said. However, that is probably why little is said in the public about what else Minister Paunović said in the aforementioned interview.
"The interview has an emotional introduction, it portrays the lady as a person who thinks least of herself, and above all of her homeland and Kosovo," says Seferi, who shares her hometown of Peć with Snežana Paunović. "The narrative on which the interview is based is simple: nothing bad happened in Kosovo, only the Albanians were an evil force - from harassing Serbs into learning the Albanian language to being fake refugees."
The minister also says that she had an Albanian friend, that with her she learned the Albanian language, got to know the Albanian culture and that she "saw everything". He calls Albanians from Kosovo all the time Shiptars, and constantly portrays Serbs as victims.
"But she obviously didn't see some things, because she claims that the Albanians falsified the situation in Kosovo, the whole situation from the end of the eighties until after the war. She and I share the same city, and by God, some similar memories and events. It's just that she doesn't remember some of them."
The minister says that Albanians left schools and workplaces on their own and that it was all a "spin". However, it does not say what preceded it. In March 1989, Serbia abolished the autonomy that Kosovo had under the 1974 Constitution, took over the competences, institutions, companies and establishments. All Albanians who worked in public services were given a half-page paper to sign that they accept the new measures and Serbian authorities. If they signed it - they could stay at work. Many Albanians did not want to accept that, so they were expelled from the institutional system.
The minister does not mention any of that, but states that brotherhood and unity represented terror for the Serbs, that the Albanian communists made this political arrangement historic and that as a child she was happy when the people shouted "Arrest Vlasi!".
"It's a strange feeling to be happy when you hear - arrest Vlasi," she said in an interview.
This is also a historical event, which Snezana Paunović described in a unique way. It happened in February 1989 when, during a rally in Belgrade, the crowd shouted these slogans demanding the arrest of Kosovo politician Azem Vlasi, who opposed Serbia's nationalist policy towards Kosovo. Slobodan Milošević responded to the shouts of the crowd he had gathered by saying: "I can't hear you well, but there will be arrests."
