(ANSA-AFP) - PRISTINA, AUG 6 - Kosovo authorities raided at
least nine Serbian post office branches near its northern border
with Serbia on Monday, in a move slammed by Belgrade as
"unlawful". The synchronised raids by Kosovo police on Post of
Serbia facilities will likely further cripple the services the
postal service provides for ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo. "A
police operation is being carried out in the north of Kosovo on
the suspicion that they are operating illegally, unregistered
and unlicensed post offices," Kosovo police said in a statement.
"So far nine locations have been identified, where such illegal
post offices operated."
Police sealed off the facilities after allowing employees to
take their personal belongings and leave. Tensions between
Serbia and Kosovo have been simmering for months, following a
new rule earlier this year that made the euro the only legal
currency in Kosovo and effectively outlawed use of the Serbian
dinar. The move -- which came after EU- and US-backed
negotiations failed -- sparked anger in Belgrade, which
continues to finance a parallel health, education and social
security system for the Serbian minority in Kosovo. Serb post
offices were long used to receive funds, including pensions, and
transfer money to financial institutions in Serbia. Serbian
authorities slammed Monday's raids.
"This is yet another example of the open display of force and
unlawful actions by the temporary self-government institutions
in Pristina," Serbia's Ministry of Information and
Telecommunications said in a statement. The EU called Kosovo's
move a "unilateral and uncoordinated step". "We call on the
Kosovo government to reconsider its decision and to find a
negotiated solution to this issue in the framework of the
EU-facilitated Dialogue," EU foreign affairs spokesperson Peter
Stano said in a statement. Animosity between Kosovo and Serbia
has persisted since the war between Serbian forces and ethnic
Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s that drew a NATO
intervention against Belgrade. Kosovo later declared
independence in 2008, a move that Serbia has refused to
acknowledge. Kosovo is overwhelmingly populated by ethnic
Albanians, but in the northern stretches of the territory near
the border with Serbia, ethnic Serbs remain the majority in
several municipalities. (ANSA-AFP).
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