Kosovo police (KPS) has continued to seize new Serbian license plates which have Kosovo cities’ letters inscribed on them.
Citizens of north Kosovska Mitrovica so far use the new Serbian license plates, while it is impossible to drive vehicles with Serbian plates south of the Ibar River.
Tuesday marked 100 days since the Kosovo Albanian authorities cut off telephone lines to a number of Serb communities south of the Ibar River. A performance was staged in front of the ambulance station in the village of Laplje Selo, central Kosovo, to mark the occasion of 100 days since phone lines to the emergency service of the health-care center in GraÄanica were severed, the health institution said.
Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanović says there are “two realities in Kosovo”, one south and the other north of the Ibar River. Bogdanović stated for the Belgrade-based daily Politika on Wednesday that “the fact that Serbs south of the Ibar River took part in the (Kosovo) elections despite the recommendation of the Serbian government does not mean anything” as the Kosovo Albanian authorities in PriÅ¡tina “aim to divide Kosovo Serbs in any possible way.”
Ministry for Kosovo State Secretary Oliver Ivanović has expressed his concern over the announced reduction of the NATO-led KFOR troops. Ivanović said on Tuesday in Kosovska Mitrovica after meeting with KFOR’s commander, Erhart Buehler, that he believed Kosovo police, KPS, could not take responsibility of the Serb enclaves – south of the Ibar River – and Serb Orthodox churches and monasteries there.
A commander with the NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo, KFOR, says that the situation in the north is “stable but fragile”. Col. Frank Barrera, who commands KFOR’s multi-national brigade North, said the troops under his command have been setting up numerous checkpoints and organizing patrols along both sides of the Ibar River.
KFOR Commander Erhart Buehler stated on Thursday that KFOR, EULEX and KPS are taking joint measures to ensure peace and security. He peace and security was ensured to the south and the north of the Ibar River.
The Health Center in the Serb enclave in GraÄanica in Kosovo has announced that a patient died because he was unable to call an ambulance. The phones operated by Belgrade-based providers in enclaves inhabited by Serbs south of the Ibar River were cut off on Sunday and Monday by the Kosovo Albanian authorities in PriÅ¡tina.
Serb enclaves south of the Ibar River are still without mobile and fixed phone services, as Priština authorities halted the disabling of Telekom property. The push to disable Telekom Srbija (Telecom Serbia) transmitters and base stations started on Sunday and continued on Monday, but the company said it was halted today.
The return of judges and prosecutors to the Kosovska Mitrovica District Court was planned for today, but has been postponed. The courthouse is located in the northern, predominantly Serb part of the tense, ethnically divided town. The Serbs north of the Ibar River do not accept the authority of the Kosovo Albanian government in Priština, nor its indepednence declaration.
The National Defense University (NDU) in Washington political science professor Steven Meyer says Serbia should demand a partition of Kosovo.
The province’s ethnic Albanians in February 2008 unilaterally declared independence, but Belgrade rejected this, and the territory has not been able to join the UN. North of the Ibar River is predominantly inhabited by Serbs, who also rejected the proclamation.
EPS has signed an agreement with Italian company SECI Energia for founding a joint venture called Ibarske Elektrane. In the coming years, they will be building 10 hydroelectric plants along the Ibar River, worth a total of EUR 278mn.
The local hospital in GraÄanica has warned that it has not been able to receive phone calls from patients for the last five days. This came with the disabling of phone networks in Serb areas of the province, south of the Ibar River.
Ministry for Kosovo State Secretary Oliver Ivanović said that the ministry supports the announced protests of Serbs. Serbs who were left without telephone services south of the Ibar River in the province have announced more protests in the enclave of GraÄanica and other locations.
Heavy rain has caused severe floods in the municipalities in NiÅ¡, Kraljevo, RaÄa, Knić, Jagodina and Gadžin Han. The flooding Ibar River left several neighborhoods in Kraljevo under water.
Six years have passed since the largest ethnically motivated crimes since 1999 occurred in Kosovo, in which 19 civilians were killed. The two-day riots in Kosovo began on March 17, 2004, after UNMIK police found the bodies of two Albanian boys in the Ibar River in the village of Cabra in northern Kosovo.
Even though Belgrade does not recognize the elections being organized by the Kosovo government, there are some Serb politicians who are urging participation. Serb MP in the Kosovo assembly and leader of the Independent Liberal Party Bojan Stojanović said that Serbs would get their own local government in municipalities south of the Ibar River as well if they participate in the elections.
