Kosovo Serbs prepare for protest

Source: Tanjug
GRAČANICA -- Kosovo Serbs will today stage a protest gathering in the enclave of Gračanica against the violent disabling of mobile phone networks in most of the province.

The Kosovo Albanian authorities in Priština targeted Belgrade-based operators over the weekend.

Kosovo District Chief Goran Arsić said that a clear message would be sent to the government in Priština with the protest, that Serbs would not accept blackmail.

Priština is trying to isolate the Kosovo Serbs even more and integrate them violently into the system of the self-proclaimed state of Kosovo, he said.

Arsić added that events in Kosovo over the last several days “are an introduction for pressures later”, as Priština is trying to integrate the school and health system, as well as other institutions of our country in the province, into their own system”.

Officials of a body dubbed the Kosovo Regulatory Agency for Telecommunications, with the help of Kosovo police, KPS, have been forcefully turning off Serbian mobile networks in the province.

More than 20 base stations of the Telekom Srbija and Telenor companies have been damaged, while mobile operators are functioning only in northern Kosovo, which has a majority Serb population.

There are currently about 100,000 Serbs in central Kosovo and enclaves south of the Ibar River that have no phone service.