Replace the license plates, according to Belgrade's “Commander”

I drive [train with] KM plates [Kosovo Mitrovica] - Kosovska Mitrovica], I am awaiting the Serbian state decision”, Filip Kovacevic told Radio Free Europe, from North Mitrovica, one of four Serb-run majority municipalities in northern Kosovo.

Under the Kosovo Government's decision on June 29th, Kosovo city license cars, which are still issued by Serbian authorities, could be replaced by RKS (Republish of Kosovo) plates within the period of 1 August through September 30th.

Zoran from Northern Mitrovica agrees with his fellow citizens.

“I am a citizen of Serbia, not of Kosovo”, Zoran points out.

All of them hope Kosovo authorities will not seize the plates and cars if they are not reregistered within the set deadline.

What if citizens refuse to reregister cars?

With the Government of Kosovo's decision, reregistering the RKS billboards will be valid for all vehicles registered in the Serbian system in the period of 10 June 1999 to 21 April of this year.

Also, it is stressed that after the deadline there will not be a reregistering of cars with license plates of Kosovo cities issued by Serbia.

The [Kosovo] Ministry of Internal Affairs takes over all the actions and measures needed to implement this process”, the Government of Kosovo announced.

Until the publication of this text, no one from the Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs has responded to REL questions about the prepared actions for implementation of the reregistering process and what will be Kosovo's next steps if citizens in the north refuse to re-register their cars.

Earlier, Prime Minister Kurti had warned “of the” KM license plates, since they had said they were illegal.

Contradict messages from Kurti and Petkov

On 3 July, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti called on all members of the Serb community, who run cars, as he said, with illegal city license plates in Kosovo and issued by Serbian authorities, to make reregistering with RKS (Kosovo Republic).

Kurti addressed Kosovo Serbs in the Serbian language.

To ensure that the vehicle registration process is as easy as possible, there will be no need for customs. This is a huge concession, given that the customs fee for the vehicle would be around 5,000 euros. For the first census, no technical control of the car” will be required, Kurti said in a message published in his Facebook account.

Kurti explained that reregistering vehicles would be possible at one of the 33 census centres throughout Kosovo, including municipalities in the north.

On the other hand, Office for Kosovo Director in Serbia Government Petar Petkov told Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti that Serbian plates in Kosovo are not illegal, but that they exist on the basis of Serbia's laws and the Brussels Agreement.

The only thing illegal is disrespecting and breaking the deal, of course not KM plates! This provocation and attempting to seizure Serbian cars will not exceed”, Petkov wrote in his Twitter account.

The Serbian leader reacted sharply to Pristina's decision to set a deadline for reregistering cars.

One of the last statements on the subject was made by Serbia's prime minister, Anna Brnabiq, who said on July 3rd Belgrade'sTV Pink that <x0pression, terror and continuing harassment” of Serbs in Kosovo is continuing.

However, employees of Serbian institutions in Kosovo last week received a “warning verbal” that they cannot take advantage of annual holidays in the coming period due to the “set political”>>> This information for REL has confirmed itself by employees, but at the request that their identity not be revealed, fearing they will endanger the workplace.

Workers of Serbian institutions often had a job duty to come out of protest because of the political situation, or at the barricades, even in the Kosovo elections, when they had to support the Serbian List, the main Serbian political party in Kosovo.

On July 1st, the head of the education administration, Ivan Zaporozhac, and the director of the Clinical Hospital Centre, Zlatan Elek, did not respond to REL calls or messages about stopping holidays. The same was true on July 4.

Previous Bulling Fights

The issue of license plates raised tensions between Pristina and Belgrade in September last year, after Kosovo imposed reciprocal measures on Serbia, or the delivery of temporary license plates to all who drive city license cars from Serbia.

Afterwards, the Kosovo government announced that all KM plates would be taken to citizens in northern Kosovo, which prompted Serbs to block border crossings in northern Kosovo . Jarinje and Brnjak for two weeks. During this time, Kosovo Police Special Units were present at crossings linking Kosovo and Serbia, while Serbian military planes had sometimes flown over the border point in Jarinje.

At the time, official Belgrade announced that the Serbian Army units were on a stand-by battle in Raska and Novi Pazar garrisons, near the border with Kosovo.

However, with the European Union's mediation, the situation was intensified and a temporary solution for license plates was reached -- that is, to cover the state symbols of Kosovo and Serbia with white glue on all plates.

After this temporary solution, Kosovo and Serbia had to reach a final solution, but this did not happen because of the different positions of the two sides.

On 29 June, EU special representative for dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina Miroslav Lajcak has voiced hope that dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia at a high political level will continue in July as well.

However, the same day, the Government of Kosovo has approved the decision to reregister cars, and the Serbian government reacted sharply, and Vucic said there will be no dialogue.

Lajcak himself said on June 30th that a new “is established in relations between Serbia and Kosovo, and at the moment it is not known whether Kurti and Vuciq will still meet this month.