Accounts of Serbian municipalities in Kosovo blocked

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - President of the Northern Mitrovica Municipal Assembly Ksenija Bozovic stated on Friday that the accounts of four northern Kosovo municipalities with majority Serb population have been blocked for a week now without any explanation or written notification by the Pristina government.

Nowhere else in the world can a bank account be blocked without prior notification, Bozovic told Tanjug.

She noted that the municipalities have not been able to perform financial transfers for seven days now. The authorities in Pristina can say that their (financial transfer) system is out of order for the time being, but it is unacceptable for the system to be out of order only in northern Kosovo municipalities with majority Serb population, Bozovic said.

She expressed the belief that the block came from the Ministry of Local Self-Government at the instructions by the Kosovo Finance Ministry.

In the past few days, the Kosovo government announced that the accounts in northern Kosovo municipalities may be blocked because this year's budget does not envisage funds for healthcare and education.

Pristina media announced that temporary measures could be introduced in the municipalities or that extraordinary elections may even be called unless new budgets are adopted that would be in keeping with the Kosovo laws.

Bozovic underscored that the municipalities in northern Kosovo adopted the budget in keeping with the law and on time, but the problem lies in the fact that Pristina is exerting pressure in order to have the salaries for healthcare and education paid through the Kosovo budget.

We conformed to the agreement from Brussels which envisages that healthcare and education should be funded from the budget of...