The Serb List has announced that four Serbian institutions will not vacate the building in the Bosniak neighborhood of North Mitrovica, which, according to local authorities, belongs to this municipality.
The municipality of North Mitrovica had set a deadline for the Office for Kosovo of the Serbian Government, the Directorate of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, the Administrative District of Mitrovica in Kosovo, and the Social Welfare Center from Vushtrria to leave the building by September 8. These institutions have been using this municipal property for some time.
“In light of Pristina’s intention to escalate the situation on the ground and seize the facility in Mitrovica at all costs, we want to inform the public that we reject Pristina’s regime ultimatum to vacate our offices and insist on resolving this issue in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina mediated by the EU, within the framework of establishing the Association of Serb-majority municipalities, as envisaged in the 2013 and 2015 agreements,” the Serb List stated.
This political party, representing Kosovo Serbs and supported by the official Belgrade, also emphasized that the institutions located in the municipal building provide services to all citizens regardless of ethnicity.
“The persecution and forcible occupation of this building would threaten the exercise of human rights for tens of thousands of people, both in the field of pension and disability insurance and social protection for the most vulnerable layers of society,” the party said.
The Serb List called on the international community to “prevent” the Kosovo authorities from, as it said, “escalating the situation by causing additional tensions that could have unforeseen consequences on the ground”.
The action to prevent Serbian institutions from vacating the municipal property in North Mitrovica was originally scheduled for August 25 but was postponed for two weeks.
Earlier, the municipal inspectorate had sent a warning to these institutions to vacate the offices since they had not submitted documents or contracts to prove they had permission to use the property.
Authorities in North Mitrovica claimed the building as their own and said it needed to be vacated due to some “repairs”. However, in a previous statement to Radio Free Europe, they did not specify the nature of the work.
On August 23, the US Embassy in Pristina urged the Kosovo authorities to “refrain from any actions that may escalate tensions”.
North Mitrovica is located in the north of Kosovo, an area predominantly inhabited by Serbs. Tensions in the north have been escalating since the end of May, as local Serbs oppose the newly elected Albanian mayors.
The new municipal leaders were elected in April in an election boycotted by the Serbian population.
Following an escalation of tensions, the Kosovo Government agreed in July to take steps towards full normalization of the situation. One of the steps agreed upon by Pristina and Brussels envisages creating the legal basis for holding new elections in four northern municipalities.
In this context, on September 5, a new administrative instruction was published allowing the removal of municipal mayors through a petition.
