Kosovo Serbs protest over power and water outages
Serbs living in eastern Kosovo have protested Friday after a sixth consecutive day power and water cuts, which made them close schools and ambulances.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Saturday, January 31, 2009
Several hundred Serbs gathered in Gornje Kusce to express their anger at the Kosovo Electrical Corporation (KEK), which conditions the repair on a major electrical circuit with Serb payments of overdue and future electricity bills at market prices.
Kosovo Serbs complain that they are unable to pay their electricity bills, given their precarious economic opportunities in postwar Kosovo, caused by layoffs, safety concerns and limited freedom of movement.
"Year after year, they are posing the same conditions, which might be legitimate in a normal situation, but since we live in abnormal conditions here, that is impossible", said Dragan Nikolic, а local Kosovo Serb administrator.
He claimed that the water and electricity cuts were a constant method of political pressure against the Serb community.
Water and electricity shortages are a recurrent phenomenon throughout Kosovo, sometime lasting for several days in wintertime. Serbian authorities in Belgrade have regularly offered expertise and emergency electricity exports to alleviate the situation, but Pristina rejects such cooperation on a political basis.
