According to numerous reports it is not a rare occurrence that women in Kosovo are discriminated against in many areas of social life, while the attitude of some employers or heads of the institutions toward women is different comparing to the one toward the men. One of the latest examples is a dismissal of Vesna Mikic as Deputy Minister of Justice, Voice of America reports.

Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, two weeks ago dismissed Mikic over her stance on the NATO bombing of the-then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ). However, Minister of Local Self-Governance and Administration Ivan Todosijevic had an almost identical stance on the bombing campaign and he is still a member of the Kosovo Government.

On the 20^th anniversary of NATO bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Mikic, Deputy Minister of Justice on 24 March, wrote on her Facebook profile the following:

“On this date, exactly 20 years ago, a deliberately planned genocide was committed by NATO against a sovereign state that for a decade fought Albanian terrorism within its own borders.”

Only one day after this announcement, Ramush Haradinaj dismissed Mikic, saying there is no place in the Kosovo Government or institutions “for individuals, regardless of their ethnic background, who can disdain common Euro-Atlantic values”.

However, according to the Voice of America, Minister of Local-Governance Administration in the Kosovo Government, Ivan Todosijevic made a similar statement at the event in Zvecan marking 20^th anniversary of the NATO bombing, but he has not been replaced.

“The reason behind the aggression over our country was the so-called humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo and Metohija. The massacre in Recak was fabricated, and it was the Albanian terrorists that fabricated all this, and they committed the biggest crimes in Kosovo and Metohija, while no one has been held responsible for this up today. They committed crimes before the NATO aggression, they killed Serbs in their houses and at working places. They continued their blood-thirsty actions also during the aggression and after the deployment of the so-called peace mission in Kosovo and Metohija,” Voice of America quoted Todosijevic as saying.

Lawyer Edvard Gashi told Voice of America that in this case there are elements of discrimination, because the Prime Minister reacted differently toward Vesna Mikic comparing to Ivan Todosijevic.

However, Gashi thinks that Ramush Haradinaj committed discrimination by dismissing Vesna Mikic at all, since according to him in democratic societies everybody is entitled to his/her own opinion. Gashi believes Ramush Haradinaj should correct his action.

“There is a standard when it comes to unjustified sanctioning – one should correct mistake toward a person who was sanctioned and not to sanction others because of similar or identical opinion. Therefore, politicians should be moderate and control consequences of unmeasured acts. According to that standard, anyone can be dismissed from any post just because she/he expressed their opinion publicly. How the situation would look like then?” Gashi wondered.

Voice of America further reported they did not manage to find out why the Kosovo Prime Minister acted unequally towards the members of the government he is heading, thus maybe violating the Law against Discrimination and Article 24 of the Kosovo Constitution, because the Prime Minister was in the USA.