Kosovo Police closes parallel Serbian institutions in the country’s north
Kosovo’s Interior Minister, Xhelal Sveçla, announced that on Wednesday morning, Serbian-controlled parallel municipalities in northern Kosovo, along with post offices and tax offices in ten municipalities across the country, were closed. Sveçla stated on social media that “with coordinated action, the era of Serbia’s parallel and criminal municipalities and institutions in the Republic of Kosovo ends.”
Why is it important: This is a further effort by Kosovo’s government to extend its authority to the north of the country, in accordance with the agreement reached in Brussels in 2013 to dissolve the so-called parallel institutions, which are financed and run by the government of Serbia. Kosovo’s police carried out their latest actions amid the campaign leading up to parliamentary elections on February 9.
The context: Kosovo authorities consider the operations of these Serbian institutions, established post-war in 1999, to be “illegal.” Actions to close them began early last year, drawing criticism from the EU and the US, which expressed “deep disappointment” and described the actions as “unilateral and uncoordinated.”
Following Wednesday’s developments, Serbia’s Prime Minister Miloš Vučević stated that Serbia is closely monitoring the situation. “We will take all measures to protect the Serbian population from the new attacks of Albin Kurti, who has apparently turned his pre-election campaign into continued mistreatment of our people,” Vučević said.
Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić called on the international community to intervene and “protect the rights of Serbs in Kosovo.”
Similarly, Petar Petković, the director of the Office for Kosovo in Serbia’s government, condemned the closures, labeling them an “attack” and a threat to ongoing dialogue.
Petković, who is in Brussels for the first meeting of the joint Kosovo-Serbia Commission on Missing Persons, added, “It’s clear why Bislimi [Kosovo’s chief negotiator] did not attend today. While I arrived with the Belgrade delegation to discuss missing persons, Kurti and Pristina chose the path of violence and unilateral actions,” he posted on social media.
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