(ANSA-AFP) - BELGRADE, AUG 31 - Kosovo authorities on Friday
raided five municipal offices linked to the Belgrade government
in ethnic Serb areas near its northern border with Serbia on
Friday. The move is the latest in a series of operations and
legal manoeuvres aimed at dismantling the so-called parallel
system of social services and political offices backed by the
Serbian government inside Kosovo. "The parallel illegal
institutions of local self-government, which operated under the
directives of Serbia, violating the constitutionality and laws
of the Republic of Kosovo, have been closed," said Elbert
Krasniqi, Kosovo's minister of local administration, in a
statement. "There is no place for illegal operation and parallel
services in any space of our republic." Kosovo Police also
confirmed the raids, saying the offices were issuing forged
documents. Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have been
simmering for months, following the introduction of a rule
earlier this year that made the euro the only legal currency in
Kosovo, effectively outlawing the use of the Serbian dinar.
Earlier this month, Kosovo authorities raided Serbian post
office branches in ethnic Serb communities across the north.
Serbian post offices in Kosovo have long been used to receive
funds, including pensions, and transfer money to financial
institutions in Serbia. The moves have angered Belgrade, which
continues to finance health, education and social security
systems for the ethnic Serb minority in Kosovo. Kosovo
authorities have also been hinting that they are considering
reopening a bridge in the divided city of Mitrovica that has
long separated Serbs and ethnic Albanians. The NATO-led
peacekeeping force KFOR maintains a strong presence in Mitrovica
and patrols the area around the bridge that has been closed to
car traffic for years and was the scene of frequent clashes. The
spike in tensions comes after EU- and US-backed negotiations
between Kosovo and Serbia all but collapsed last year. Animosity
between Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the war between
Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.
Kosovo later declared independence in 2008, a move that Serbia
has refused to acknowledge. (ANSA-AFP).
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