Kosovo Serbs defy Belgrade, refuse to hand over local authorities
Local Serb leaders have defied orders from Belgrade and refused to hand over the authority in their northern Kosovo enclave, putting pressure on an EU-brokered normalization agreement, the news agency said Friday.
(kosovocompromisestuff) Friday, September 13, 2013
The Serbian government on Tuesday said it had dissolved and provisionally replaced authorities in four northern Kosovo municipalities, but Serbs in the enclave said that "the (government) decision has not been implemented" and urged its revocation.Belgrade moved against compatriots in the so-called parallel authorities in northern Kosovo because they had rejected the normalization agreement of Serbia and Kosovo.The key part of the agreement is the participation of Serbs in November 3 local elections in Kosovo, Serbia‘s mostly Albanian former province with a majority Albanian population. The polls will chose local authorities in the mostly Serb municipalities and initiate their integration into Kosovo‘s political structure.Ever since the 1999 war in Kosovo, the northern Serb enclave has effectively been lawless, governed neither by Belgrade, which financed it, nor Pristina, which claims sovereignty over it.Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. While refusing to recognize Kosovo‘s sovereignty.
