Three days after the action of the Kosovo Police, which resulted in the closing of the illegal offices, on Monday about 100 former workers of the parallel municipality in North Mitrovica protested. They said they went to show up for work, not to protest. The facility, now closed, has been handed over to the Ministry of Infrastructure
About 100 former workers of the parallel municipality in North Mitrovica protested on Monday in front of the facility, which was locked up by the Kosovo Police on Friday.
The protest, which started at 7:30, according to the workers, was due to their inability to enter the facility and work.
"I have been working in the municipal administration for 20 years. We are here, as in every working day, but we are seeing that this is not possible. They do not allow us to enter the facility. Over a thousand people have lost their jobs, imagine their family members who depended on the salary here. I was born in Mitrovica, I live in Mitrovica, I don't want to leave here. The state of Serbia stands behind us and I believe in it", said Jelena Timotijevic, worker of the illegal municipality of North Mitrovica.
Together with the parallel municipality in this city, the District office for Mitrovica was also closed, as well as the three parallel municipalities in Zveçan, Zubin-Potok and Leposavić, all within the Serbian system.
But the protest was only in North Mitrovica on Monday.
According to the deputy director of the Kosovo Police for the North Region, Veton Elshani, the situation in the Municipality of Zveçan, that of Zubin-Potok and Leposaviq was calm.
Elshani announced that the protesters tried to enter the building, but were stopped by the Kosovo Police.
"Today, the workers who worked in the parallel structures came to report to work. Among them there are also citizens who are attached, there were somewhere 70-80 people. The protest was, in fact, they tried to go inside to work, we showed them that this building is being investigated by the prosecutor in Mitrovica and as such it is armored and even we as police cannot go inside", he said. said Elshan.
Elshani has confirmed that the facility has been handed over to the Ministry of Infrastructure, which will be turned into a driver's license center.
The representatives of Lista Serbe, the party of Kosovo Serbs supported by official Belgrade, were also at the protest.
The director of the Pension and Invalid Insurance Fund within the parallel system, Igor Simic, also a member of the Serbian List, said that more than 30.000 people receive services from the work of these institutions.
"These are not parallel institutions because the services offered by these institutions are not offered by anyone else. We pay 30.000 pensions to all citizens, regardless of ethnicity. "More than 4.000 Albanians will not be able to receive a pension because someone decided to enter this building and 26.000 Serbs and Bosniaks," he said.
Simic called on the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, to enable these people to return to work and "enable freedom of movement at work".
He also asked the European Union, QUINT states and UNMIK "to condemn these movements and support these people and their right to work".
In the vicinity of the place where the Serbs gathered on Monday morning, members of the special units of the Kosovo Police were also seen, as well as two vehicles of the European Union Mission for the Rule of Law in Kosovo (EULEX).
On August 30, the Kosovo Police, under the suspicion of issuing forged documents, closed 5 facilities of parallel municipalities in the four northern municipalities.
This action has been condemned by the international factor, calling the operation "one-sided and uncoordinated".
Earlier, other illegal municipality offices in cities across Kosovo were also closed.
