Investigations begin to enter vaccines from Serbia to northern Kosovo

This was confirmed by the chief prosecutor in Mitrovica, Shyqri Syla.

He has said that, initially, investigations and intelligence collection are under way, to determine whether pharmaceutical products have entered from Serbia to Kosovo, via illegal ways or not.

The “is first being investigated their entrance, because we can't say anything without knowing how they entered, as well as who the people who brought them”, Syla said.

He has added that opportunities for the introduction of vaccines from Serbia to Kosovo, through illegal ways, are numerous.

If we have evidence that they're really smuggled because there must be a authorization to use these vaccines and if they're illegal, criminal procedures will be initiated against those who have done these jobs. Criminal investigations will be launched following the collection of investigations, and, depending on the findings, criminal investigations will be launched against persons who have smuggled”, prosecutor Syla has said of the REL

On December 25th, Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, has declared that in northern Kosovo, the vaccine against Coronavirus has begun, with the vaccine of Pfizer companies/ BioNTech, which arrived in Serbia several days ago.

On December 26th, through a statement to the media, Kosovo's incumbent Government has said Kosovo institutions have had no official communication with Serbia's institutions on the issue, neither through liaison offices nor with the international community's mediation.

“If these vaccines have entered Kosovo through illegal routes, then Kosovo institutions will take necessary legal measures against persons involved in this illegal activity, smuggling with drugs”, it is said in the Kosovo government's statement on duty.

Kosovo Foreign Affairs Minister Melza Haradinaj Stublla has said on December 27th that the illegal “intervention in Kosovo of some pharmaceutical products from Serbia constitutes a flagrant violation of the Customs Seals Agreement and that for recognition of the pharmaceutical Certificates”, which have been reached under technical dialogue in 2015.

Serbia and its top officials, with last month's actions, as well as continuing violations, have jeopardised Kosovo's state security and, subsequently, have seized the entire process and achieved normalisation of relations between Kosovo and Serbia, both in Washington and Brussels”, Haradinaj Stublla has said in a Facebook post.

The health system in majority Serb municipalities in Kosovo functions within the Serbian system.

Otherwise it was recently reported that vaccines have not entered Kosovo through the Public Health Ent, which operates within the Serbian system in the north.

Kosovo's acting minister of health, Armend Zemaj, has said at the weekend that Kosovo, on December 7th, has officially applied to the COVAX programme for securing the vaccine against COVID-19.

COVAX is a program of the World Health Organization, which aims at the distribution of the anti - coronary vaccine even in poorer countries.