EULEX to "prohibit unapproved visits" to Kosovo
Starting today, EULEX will "no longer allow unapproved visits from officials and politicians" from central Serbia. Serbian Kosovo Ministry State Secretary Oliver Ivanovic said that EULEX cannot prohibit Serbian officials from visiting Kosovo because the mission does not have the mandate to do so.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Wednesday, May 26, 2010
This is according to a statement in Pristina on Wednesday by a spokesperson for the EU mission in Kosovo.
"If they do not have authorization, the delegations will not be allowed to continue their trips," Karin Limdal told Albanian language daily Koha Ditore.
"Taking into consideration the unauthorized visits of Serbian officials to Kosovo, in close cooperation with Brussels and the EU, EULEX has issued a decree for Kosovo police to control Serbian delegations to see whether they are authorized to visit Kosovo or not," she was quoted as saying.
The mission has handed out a set of rules to Kosovo police, KPS, on procedures, and has also given these guidelines to police in the Serb-dominated northern Kosovska Mitrovica, said reports.
The rules state that the obligation of the police is to check every vehicle with Serbian officials to see if they have been authorized to visit Kosovo.
The Pristina newspaper writes that a "record number of Serbian officials" visited Kosovska Mitrovica on Tuesday, in preparation for the coming local elections, adding that the officials "promised that Kosovo would remain an inseparable part of Serbia".
EULEX has already announced that it would not "recognize" the early local elections due to be held in Serb municipalities in the north.
Serbian Kosovo Ministry State Secretary Oliver Ivanovic reacted to this by saying that EULEX cannot prohibit Serbian officials from visiting Kosovo because the mission does not have the mandate to do so.
"They need to fight terrorism, organized crime and be much more effective in that, because there is terrorism and crime in Kosovo," Ivanovic said.
He said that Serb returnees in the village of Zac have been shot at twice, describing it as an act of terrorism, but that EULEX "did not engage itself much in these incidents".
"Serbian officials can come to Kosovo, and there is not even an act in the Kosovo (Albanian) laws that prohibits this," he said.
Ivanovic added that Serbian officials respect all procedures and announce their visits, not to get permission, but to have escort.
