Representatives of the Serbian minority, who live mainly in northern Kosovo, announced on Saturday that they will quit their jobs in state institutions, including government, police and courts, to protest Pristina’s request to start using license plates issued by the Kosovo.
After a meeting of Serbian political representatives, the Minister of Communities and Repatriation Goran Rakic announced that he will leave his post.
He told reporters that other representatives of the Serbian minority are also leaving their posts in the municipal administration, courts, police, parliament and government.
Rakic added that a return to work would not be considered unless Pristina renounced its request to replace Serbian-issued car plates with Kosovo plates from the 1990s.
He also stated that the creation of a union of Serbian municipalities is necessary, which would give greater autonomy to the districts inhabited by the Serbs.
Berim Vela, head of the office of Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani, accused Serbia of trying to destabilize Kosovo by using the Serbian minority.
“Serbia is lobbying and encouraging Kosovo Serbs to leave their positions in Kosovo institutions,” Vela said on Twitter.
The Kosovo government has announced that, starting in November, fines will be applied to Serbian drivers if they continue to use the old license plates, while vehicles that do not have their license plates changed by 23 April next year will be confiscated.
The approximately 50,000 Serbs who live compactly in northern Kosovo reject the requests, while the approximately 40,000 Serbs who live in ethnic Albanian areas of Kosovo already use license plates issued by Kosovo.
The US and the European Union (EU) have asked the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albina Kurti, to postpone the deadline for the replacement of license plates by another ten months, but he has rejected it.
Serbia effectively lost control of predominantly Albanian Kosovo in 1999 following NATO military intervention in the Kosovo conflict, but in 2008 Pristina unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. However, Belgrade still considers the former province to be part of its territory.
Meanwhile, since 2008, Kosovo Serbs have refused to obey Pristina even in everyday bureaucratic matters.
