Confirmed: Special units at the factory in Zubin Potok, assisted the Privatisation Agency.

Kosovo Police spokesman for the northern region Veton Elshani has provided details about the presence of Kosovo Police Special Units at the “factory. Ivo Lola Ribar” in Zubin Potok.

Elshani has said they have assisted the Kosovo Privatisation Agency and that they have gone there at their request.

“They requested our support and went there to check on what is going on with their object and our units and the Intervention Police offered support”, Elshani said, for “radoiation.net”

He added that police units are no longer on the ground, but that members of the Agency are still there.

What's this about?

Authorities in Kosovo have warned that by September 8th, four Serbian institutions must leave an object in the Bosniaks' Lagen, as they have argued that it belongs to the northern Mitrovica municipality.

REL has learned that some workers of these institutions spent the night in this facility.

An action to remove these Serbian institutions from the municipal object in North Mitrovica was initially meant to take place on August 25th, but was delayed for two weeks.

Prior to that, the municipal inspectorate had sent these institutions a warning to release offices after they had not submitted documents or contracts to prove they have permission to exploit the facility.

The director of the Office for Kosovo in the Serbian Government, Petar Petkovic, on September 7th addressed the international community, including QUINT states and European Union for Dialogue representative Miroslav Lajcak, saying warning of leaving this facility of Serbian institutions “could lead to deepening the crisis in northern Kosovo and additional increases in tensions on the ground”.

In the letter, Petkovic sent to international representatives, he told them that such actions of the mutual and illegal “from Pristina present a dangerous” provocation that according to him threaten the rights and lives of the Serb people living in northern Kosovo.

Meanwhile, on September 6th, the Serbian List -- the largest party of Kosovo Serbs -- enjoys official Belgrade's support, said Serbian institutions will not leave the object.

Authorities in northern Mitrovica have argued that the object belongs to them and that the same should be released due to some “working”. However, in an earlier statement about the REL, they did not specify what kind of work it is about.

Northern Mitrovica is located in northern Kosovo, the Serb-run area. This municipality, along with three other municipalities in the north, has Albanian mayors since April, who were elected to the polls boycotted by the Serb population.

In late May, tensions in northern Kosovo increased after the new Albanian mayors, with Kosovo Police assistance, entered municipal buildings.

After increasing tensions, the Government of Kosovo agreed in July to take steps towards full enlargement of the situation. One of the steps Pristina and Brussels agreed on also envisions establishing the legal base that would enable holding new elections in four municipalities in the north.

In this direction, the new administrative directive that allows the removal of mayors through a petition was published on September 5th.