The closure comes amid rising tensions in relations between Kosovo and Serbia, despite 13 years of normalization talks facilitated by the European Union, which have failed to make progress.
The authorities of KosovoFive parallel institutions that work with the Serbian ethnic minority have closeda move that could further increase tensions with neighboring Serbia.
Elbert Krasniqi, Kosovo’s Minister of Local Administration, confirmed on Friday the closure of five of the so-called parallel institutions in the north –where most of the Serbian ethnic minority lives– writing in a Facebook message that they “violate the Constitution and the laws of the Republic of Kosovo.”
According to the Kosovo Police, The operation was carried out at the request of the Ministry of Administration and Local Government to put an end to “illegal activities”.
USA immediately criticized the events in a statement in which he expressed the “Washington’s concern and disappointment for the continued uncoordinated actions” undertaken by Pristina.
The US embassy in Kosovo reiterated that the action “will continue to have a direct and negative effect on members of the ethnic Serb community and other minority communities in Kosovo.”
Kosovo was an ancient Serbian province until a 78-day NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which left some 13,000 people dead, mostly ethnic Albanians, and drove out the Serbian forces. Serbia continues to help its Serbian minority after Kosovo will proclaim its independence in 2008which Belgrade does not recognize.
Tense Kosovo-Serbia relationship
The relationship between Kosovo and Serbia remains tense, despite the 13 years of normalization talks facilitated by the European Unionwho have made no progress, especially after a shootout last September between masked Serbian gunmen and Kosovar police that left four dead.
The EU and the United States have put pressure on both sides to implement the agreements that the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti they reached in February and March of last year.
Earlier this month, Pristina declared that it would open the bridge over the Ibar riverwhich divides Mitrovica into a Serb-dominated north and an ethnic Albanian south.
The bridge has been closed to passenger vehicle traffic for more than a decade, with the ethnic Serb minority setting up barricades since 2011 because they say it “ethnic cleansing” would be carried out against them if ethnic Albanians could travel freely over the bridge to their part of the city.
Serbian authorities condemned the proposal to open the bridgesaying it is an attempt by Kosovo to “provoke a conflict.” The government of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti informed Western diplomats of his plans, which NATO member countries have opposed.
The main party supported by Kosovo Serbs, the Serbian List, has called for the intervention by a representative of the European Union to avoid escalation. Kurti has also been at odds with Western powers over Kosovo’s unilateral closure of six branches of a Serbian-licensed bank in northern Kosovo earlier this year.
Unrest in northern Mitrovica has increased since last year, when the international peacekeeping force led by NATO in Kosovo, known as KFOR, increased its troops and equipment along the Kosovo-Serbia border, including the Mitrovica Bridge.
The tiny Balkan country will hold parliamentary elections on February 9an election that is expected to be a test for Kurti, whose ruling party won by a large majority in 2021.
