Officials in Serbia have condemned the action of the Kosovo Police against the facilities of the Postal Savings Bank of Serbia in Kosovo.
During the action of May 20, the Kosovo Police said that they closed six facilities of Postal Savings Bank, as according to them, they were operating illegally in the north of the country.
The Prime Minister of Serbia, Miloš Vučević, described the action as “a barbaric act that directly threatens the survival of the Serbian people” in Kosovo.
“Who and why is the Postal Savings Bank getting in the way? Because of the check. Serbs in Kosovo are the only community in Europe that cannot operate normally. Are they entitled to wages and pensions? Or nothing is allowed,” said Vučević, according to an announcement by the Serbian Government.
In the announcement it was said that these questions were not addressed to the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, but to the international community.
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Interior of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, in his reaction to this action, said that Prime Minister Kurti continues “with terror against the Serbian people” in Kosovo, carrying out “raids on the branches of the Postal Savings Bank”.
He added that “this leads to new conflicts in the Balkans, with incalculable consequences”.
The Office for Kosovo in the Serbian Government also reacted to the May 20 action. This office claimed that during the action, the Kosovo Police “mistreated” employees of Serbian institutions.
“It is worrying that the members of EULEX and KFOR were silent observers of today’s illegal and violent action in the north of Kosovo. We call on the international representatives to urgently arrest Kurti and protect the peace and the Serbian people in Kosovo”, it was said in the reaction.
The Kosovo Police said that the action in the north of Kosovo was carried out following the reports of the financial monitoring institutions, such as the financial intelligence unit and the Central Bank of Kosovo, together with the Tax Administration of Kosovo.
This institution did not report any incident during the action, in which members of the European Union Mission for the Rule of Law in Kosovo (EULEX) and those of the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, were seen participating in the action in the north.
The action of the Kosovo authorities comes a week after the Central Bank of Kosovo announced that the transitional period for its regulation, which prohibits the use of the Serbian dinar for making payments, has ended.
The CBK regulation, which foresees the euro as the only currency for making payments, has been strongly opposed by Serbia.
Serbia allocates aid worth millions of euros to Serbs in Kosovo, paying their salaries, pensions and additional aid, in the Serbian currency, the dinar.
The CBK said on May 13 that after the end of the transitional period, it has licensed eight branches of financial institutions in municipalities with a Serbian majority, in Leposaviq, Zveçan, Graçanicë, Shtërpcë and one in Shillovo in Gjilan.
The international community has asked Kosovo to postpone the implementation of the CBK regulation, referring to the impact it may have on the Serbian community in Kosovo, which accepts various payments in dinars from the Serbian budget.
