Hospital in Gracanica appeals to World Health Organization

The Serb enclave hospital asked the UN organization to help with the alarming situation created by the disconnection of phone lines in Kosovo.

"We appeal to you for help once again, because the situation is alarming and critical and we are afraid that the emergency medical service's inability to intervene could result in a patient's death soon," reads the letter.

The board points out that disconnected phone lines have brought the operation of healthcare institutions in central Kosovo to a halt.

"We hope WHO will continue to expend efforts to solve the telecommunication problems, so that patients are once again able to call emergency medical services," it is said in the letter.

The interim Kosovo authorities in cooperation with the police dismantled a number of base stations owned by two Serbian cell phone carriers in Kosovo last week, leaving over 100,000 Serbs without phone lines.

The medical board noted that it has purchased two phones from local Kosovo cell phone operator IPKO to offset the disconnections.

"The new lines have received only five calls in the last week, even though the emergency medical service normally receives 50 calls a day. This is because patients have nowhere to call from," reads the letter.

The medical board reminded that it agreed to meet with interim Kosovo officials at WHO's request in order to solve the problems created by the disconnection of phone lines, but the meeting was canceled for unknown reason.

In the meantime, The Bishops' Assembly of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) expressed its concerns and protest because over the situation in Kosovo.

The assembly said the recent incidents were the "latest denial of freedom and violation of basic human rights of the Serbs and other ethnic non-Albanians in Kosovo by the unlawful and uncivilized removal of Serbian mobile network operators in most of Kosovo".

The announcement, signed by Bishop Irinej, spokesperson of the Assembly, says that the ethnic Albanian police has destroyed mobile network base stations in Serb villages and places where Serbs and other ethnic non-Albanians reside, putting human lives in danger.

The church also expressed concern about the lives and freedom of Serb refugee returnees in the village of Zac and other places where the Serbs are returning to their homes.

The Assembly appealed to the Serbian government, international community in Kosovo, governments of Europe and the U.S. and to the United Nations to put a stop to "any kind of violence against the already afflicted and innocent people in this part of the Balkans and Europe, the cradle of the civilization and source of humanity's spiritual and material culture".