Thousands of Kosovo Serbs stage protest against the disabling of Serbian mobile phone networks

Local officials called on the international community to react and to stop the Kosovo Albanian government in Pristina from prohibiting Serbs from using the phone services of Serbian operators.

The protests ended without incidents, and more were announced, with similar gatherings expected to be held every day until the Belgrade-based mobile phone networks have been reactivated.

Some 3,000 Serbs from central and other parts of Kosovo participated in the protest march in Gracanica.

Serbs are protesting, citing that their human rights are being violated and that the protests have nothing to do with political tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.

They say that Pristina destroyed the networks without any warning and left whole communities without any way to communicate.

There were ambulances ahead of the crowd of people, symbolizing the fact that communication with such emergency services is not possible without working phones.

KFOR and Kosovo police, KPS, secured Gracanica during the rally, which stopped the traffic through the enclave.

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

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

Pristina 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.

Arsic added that events in Kosovo over the last several days "are an introduction for pressures later", as Pristina 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.

Serbian Ministry for Kosovo State Secretary Oliver Ivanovic said that the ministry supports the announced new protests of Serbs.

At the same time, the Kosovo Albanian government and international community officials, repeated that it is "important for only legal telephone operators to exist in Kosovo".

Ivanovic told B92 TV in Belgrade that every violent act is dangerous and the Kosovo government is endangering the security of Kosovo Serbs with this action.

Ivanovic said that the protests are important because they even have the support of the local officials that participated in the Kosovo elections organized by Pristina last year.