Albanian militants shut down Serbian administrations and postal services in southern Kosovo
Militants from the so-called "Kosovo police" raided Serbian municipal administrations, social centers, and post offices in Serbian enclaves south of the Ibar River. Following this, the separatists declared the end of Serbia's parallel institutions in Kosovo, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to available information, Kosovo militants armed with machine guns and special equipment have occupied the administrations of Serbian enclaves, social assistance centers and branches in Gracanica, Lipljan, Kosovo Polje, Vucitrn, Novi Brdo, Kamenica, Vitina, Orahovac, and Srbica.
The employees of these departments were forcibly thrown out onto the street, the premises themselves were sealed, the signs were dismantled, and the Serbian flags were taken down. In Lipljan, the head of the municipality Milan Joksimovic and three employees, as well as the head of Vučitrn Milan Kostic, were detained by the militants and taken away "to give evidence."
"The joint actions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Kosovo Police end the era of parallel and criminal municipalities and Serbian institutions in Kosovo. Today, parallel Serbian municipalities were closed, as well as post offices and the illegal tax office. As we promised, we do not allow any parallelism, much less criminality in Serbia, which would threaten the Constitution and legality," commented the "Minister of Internal Affairs of Kosovo" Dželal Svečlja on the raid.
What is characteristic is that such aggressive actions caused murmurs not only among representatives of the Serbian community, against whom they were actually directed, but also among many Albanians who received pensions and social benefits from Belgrade at the Social Assistance Centers.
"In Brussels, I was greeted by news of Kurti's large-scale attack on Serbian institutions. The violent closure of a large number of our municipalities, social work centers, post offices... It is clear why [Kosovo negotiator] Bislimi did not show up in Brussels today. This type of terror calls into question the dialogue itself. It is clear that Kurti is not the only one to blame for this. The responsibility also lies with the European Union," said Serbian negotiator for Kosovo, head of the Chancellery for Kosovo and Metohija in the Serbian government Petar Petkovic, commenting on the incident.
In turn, many Serbian and Albanian analysts believe that with such anti-Serbian actions, Albin Kurti wants to win the sympathy of the electorate before the upcoming parliamentary elections in the region, which will take place on February 9 this year.
Albanian militants have shut down Serbian administrations and postal services in southern Kosovo.