Serbian institutions in north of Kosovo-Metohija remain blocked

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - Employees of Serbian institutions in Kosovska Mitrovica were again denied access to their workplaces by the so-called Kosovo Police, which is still blocking municipal buildings in the north of Kosovo-Metohija after raiding and closing them on Friday.

Several hundred Serbs employed by the institutions gathered outside the Kosovska Mitrovica municipal building on Tuesday morning, demanding that they be allowed to work and provide vital services to fellow citizens of all ethnicities, but the demand was not met.

They also vowed not to let anyone expel them from their ancestral homes.

Sasa Petrovic, a resident of Kosovska Mitrovica, said he had been an employee of the municipal authorities for 17 years.

"Unfortunately, since yesterday I have been unable to go to my office to do my routine work. As a service to the citizens, the municipal administration, which has existed since 1945, never stopped working during or after the war and worked for 25 years after the war. Until Friday, we provided services regardless of the citizens' religious or ethnic affiliation," he said.

In Friday's raid, Pristina's police seized the municipal buildings in all four municipalities in the north of Kosovo-Meothija - Leposavic, Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvecan and Zubin Potok - the hospital complex in Kosovska Mitrovica and a building that housed the offices of the pension and disability insurance fund, the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija, the Kosovska Mitrovica Administrative District and the Social Work Centre.

On Sunday, Pristina's institutions placed trilingual signs on the buildings.

The signs include symbols of the so-called Kosovo.