Belgrade: New provocation from Pristina

Serbian President Boris Tadic called the destruction of the Telekom Srbija's property in Kosovo "a new kind of provocation".

He added that this would not contribute to the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, which is to begin under the auspices of the European Union.

"Today we are making every attempt to prevent such provocations and to re-enable telecommunication systems so that telephone signal could reach all citizens living in Kosovo, regardless of ethnicity", Tadic said.

"We are convinced that the state-owned carrier has all the rights and licenses necessary for its operation, properly obtained in the second half of the nineties", Tadic told reporters during his visit to Sombor.

According to him, Serbia will not stand down on its rights and property.

"The very question of rights of property and assets shall be a topic of discussions and dialogue that we (Belgrade and Pristina) expect in the near future," he added.

Tadic said that Serbia will talk with "all the factors in international politics about the provocation."

"Unfortunately, we could do nothing to prevent this provocation, because we had learned our relay units were going to be dismantled immediately before the actual dismantling began", the Serbian president said.

Tadic called the nationalistic messages that appeared on the Telekom Srbija's equipment "outrageous". Certain pieces of equipment had written messages of hatred against Serbs.

Serbs protested over disconnection of networks

Hundreds of Serbs have protested in Strpce over the cutting of cables and removal of antennas of the Serbian mobile phone operators.

The inhabitants of Strpce and surrounding villages have announced more gatherings until the issue of Serbian phone provider networks is resolved, as they had been using it before the Kosovo Telecommunications Regulation Agency destroyed the transmitters of the Telekom Serbia on Sunday.

It has been stressed during the protest that with the disconnection of phone lines the Serbs in Strpce have been even more isolated from the world. Namely, some 100 thousand Serbs in Kosovo have been without the phone signal since Sunday, while the lines are still functional only in the north of the Province.

Destruction stopped

Technical coordinator of Telekom Srbija for Kosovo, Ilija Ivanovic, said the Kosovo Albanian authorities had stopped destroying the equipment and base stations of that company in the region of central and southern Kosovo.

In cooperation with Serbian state authorities, Telekom will find solutions for those regions, until which time Telekom workers will be on duty day and night to preserve the equipment and base stations, said Ivanovic.