Kosovo Raids Parallel Serb Institutions Amid Simmering Ethnic Tensions

KOSOVO: Closure of Serbian offices in Gracanica, Kosovo, Jan 15, 2025

KOSOVO: Closure of Serbian offices in Gracanica, Kosovo, Jan 15, 2025

Authorities in Kosovo raided municipal offices in 10 Serbia-backed areas as the government continues to press the closure of so-called parallel institutions that gave Belgrade leverage in its former province.

Kosovo's Internal Affairs Minister Xhelal Svecla said the raids on January 15 were aimed at ending “the era of Serbia's parallel and criminal municipalities and institutions in the Republic of Kosovo.”

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Ethnic Serbs Denounce Raids On Parallel Institutions In Kosovo (Video)

The municipalities involved in the raids -- which come ahead of Kosovar parliamentary elections in February -- include Lipjan, Obiliq, Pristina, Fushe Kosove, Vushtrri, Novoberde, Kamenica, Viti, Rahovec, and Skenderaj he added.

Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo have been guided for decades by Belgrade and its parallel structures in the region, including Serbian banks, a pension system, and unemployment benefits.

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Authorities in Kosovo say that the work of these Serbian institutions, which have been in operation since the post-war period in 1999, is "illegal."

Last year, the government began taking steps to dismantle parallel structures in an effort to extend Pristina's authority in the north as much as possible. The government has also phased out the Serbian currency, the dinar, which many Serbs received their salaries or pensions in, replacing it with the euro.

Belgrade has never acknowledged the independence that Pristina declared in 2008, and violent flare-ups and standoffs persist between Kosovar authorities and tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo in a region still scarred by brutal wars and ethnic cleansing in the 1990s.

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Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic said that the "development of the situation" in Kosovo is being followed carefully.

"We will take all measures to protect the Serbian population from new attacks by [Prime Minister] Albin Kurti, who, apparently, has turned his pre-election campaign into a continuation of the mistreatment of our people," he said.

Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Djuric added that "these aggressive moves are not just an attack on institutions but a blatant attempt to undermine the collective rights and identity of Serbs in Kosovo."

Kosovo's government has spent much of the past year trying to root out Serbian influence in the daily lives of many of those Serbs, eliciting concerns among Western partners that such "unilateral" actions will stir up unnecessary trouble just a generation removed from bitter ethnic bloodshed.

Pristina says it is merely trying to enforce its constitutional order.

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Kosovo and Serbia have been negotiating normalization since 2011 through the Brussels dialogue, which is supervised by the EU.

They reached an agreement on normalization steps in early 2023, but key elements of the deal remain unfulfilled. Kosovo insists that this agreement must be signed first, although the EU says it is binding on the parties regardless of signature.

Kosovo, which is majority ethnic Albanian, has faced increased criticism from international partners, including the United States and the EU over "unilateral" and "uncoordinated" actions affecting the daily lives of its ethnic Serb minority.

Belgrade and EU and U.S. officials have also pressed for Pristina to lay the legal groundwork to establish an association of mostly Serb municipalities that it originally pledged to create more than a decade ago.

A U.S. Embassy spokesperson said Kosovo’s actions to close "Serbia-run institutions directly and negatively impact Kosovo citizens -- ethnic Serbs and other communities -- and could undermine Kosovo’s aspirations to join the Euro-Atlantic community."

The spokesperson added that the actions were "against our best advice" and "weaken trust in the relationship and constrain our ability to help Kosovo secure the best and brightest future for all its people."

The European Union said Kosovo's recent actions go against its obligations toward the European Union under the normalization process.

The status of Serbia-supported structures is foreseen to be resolved through the EU-facilitated dialogue, the EU said in a press release. "Kosovo must demonstrate and remain consistent with its obligations under the EU-facilitated Dialogue and its recent recommitment to it."