Serbs in North Kosovo Cut Ties With EU Mission

Officials in Kosovo's majority Serb northern municipalities have said they will cease cooperation and communication with the EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX.

Tanjug, B92

The councilors in the majority Serb, northern part of the ethnically divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica said their decision on Tuesday will be valid until the mission begins to act and work in line with the mandate it had been given.

The councilors warned the representatives of the international community not to take unilateral steps for the reopening of the court in Kosovska Mitrovica, adding they would have to take responsibility for a destabilized situation in the city if they did.

The Mitrovica court is currently staffed by EULEX and has failed in attempts to put in place local prosecutors and judges.

At the sixth regular session on Tuesday, the town assembly called on Serbs and other non-ethnic Albanian residents to boycott the forthcoming census organised by the government in Pristina.

On Monday, officials in Pristina said that the census would go forward as planned on April 1, without the participation of the disputed north.

Meanwhile, those at the session appealed to all national and local enterprises and institutions, private companies and individuals not to cooperate with USAID, "because it had abandoned political neutrality".

The councilors also condemned the behavior of the NATO force KFOR, pointing out that they were acting beyond their mandate and supporting “illegal (ethnic) Albanian institutions and EULEX.”

Meanwhile, an EULEX spokesperson has said that the decision by Serbs from northern Kosovska Mitrovica to cease cooperation with the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo will not affect the work of EULEX judges and police, the AP news agency reports.

Mitrovica has been a crucible of ethnic strife since the conflict in Kosovo ended in 1999. The river Ibar, which runs through the town of 120,000 people, has become a de-facto border between the two communities – Albanians in the south and Serbs in the north.

Serbia retains strong influence over the area north of the Ibar, home to about 100,000 Serbs, but neither Belgrade nor Pristina maintains effective rule of law there.