The removal of Serb parallel structures from municipal facilities: What happens in two weeks?

On August 22nd, the North Mitrovica municipality's municipal inspectorate requested that, within three days, on Friday and August 25th, free the facility because they failed to hand in documents or contracts for its exploitation.

But in spite of this <x0matium”, on the day when parallel structures were supposed to release space for the municipal building, the decision was postponed for another two weeks.

The mayor of this municipality, Erden Attic, confirmed this. “Yes, it is true that the deadline has been extended for two weeks”, Attic said briefly, without providing additional details as to why he pushed him to make such a decision.

Requests to free the municipality area have not prevented workers of parallel illegal structures from getting to work on Friday as usual, thus totally ignoring municipal decisions.

Postponing to implement this decision for two more weeks comes two days after the United States of America, and one day after the European Union has been out against it.

On Wednesday, the US Embassy in Kosovo noted that the North Mitrovica local authorities' decision to free a municipal building from persons working for Serbia's administration has not been taken in co-ordination with the international community.

In a response to “Radio Free Europe”, from the US Embassy, they said they previously advised the Government of Kosovo, including the mayors in the country's north, to refrain from undertaking any action that could add new layers of tension to an already recognised atmosphere.

We assess that these actions, which are not co-ordinated with the international community, are contrary to our demands for avoiding actions that could escalate tensions, or may be perceived as escalation”, they have stated.

For the European Union, the local authorities' decision in northern Mitrovica to remove Serbian illegal institutions from the municipal building in the Bosniaks' Quarter is in conflict with efforts to de-excell the situation in the country's north and reduce tensions between Kosovo and Serbia, the AP writes.

EU spokeswoman Peter Stano, in a statement to the media on Thursday, has expressed concern over the impact they may have on the security situation in the Serb-run northern Kosovo majority inhabited decisions by local authorities on the use of space and municipal buildings.

According to the EU spokesman, the issue of illegal parallel structures being led and financed by Serbia must be resolved under the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

The question of Serbia-led structures should be addressed in the EU-launched dialogue, and must be resolved in the context of the establishment of the Association/Unition of Serb-run municipalities”, Stano has stated.

On August 22nd, the municipal inspector asked for parallel structures to release the object within three days because they did not hand in documents or contracts for its exploitation.

Municipal authorities said the object is their property and that it should be released due to some “processing”, without specifying exactly what work it is about.

That decision comes after a highly tense situation had prevailed in northern Kosovo since May 26th.

The Kosovo Government's decision to install at their offices the mayors of four northern municipalities -- Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposaviq -- had met with fierce opposition from local Serbs who are majority in the area.

They were extremely severe in their opposition.

The most tense situation was likely Monday and May 29th, where violent Serb protesters had attacked KFOR soldiers.

As a result, dozens of troops of the peacekeeping mission, mainly Italian and Hungarian, were left injured.

The situation had further accelerated on June 14th, after the Serbian gendarmerie had kidnapped three Kosovo police officers, who were released only after major international pressure.

For straining the situation in the north, the international community had strongly blamed Kosovo, even the same had imposed punitive measures against Pristina, due to the government's refusal to expand the situation in the north.

Kosovo would only accept the punitive measures on the de-pass plan, which had long been proposed by the EU and supported by the US.

This had happened on July 10th at the mid-Kosovo chief negotiator for dialogue with Serbia, Besnik Bislimi, with EU Special Emssar for the Pristina-Belgrade dialogue in Bratislava, Slovakia.

In the agreement released by the government on July 11th, it suggested that Kosovo had accepted the reduction of police units in and around municipal facilities in the country's north, and had agreed to hold new elections there, following those of April 23rd, which were boycotted by Kosovo Serb political representatives.

In spite of that, punitive measures have not yet left Kosovo, as additional steps are being sought by the EU to de-excend the situation in the north.