Kosovo police raid Serb post offices in troubled north

(ANSA-AFP) - PRISTINA, AUG 6 - Kosovo authorities raided at least nine Serbian post office branches near its northern border with Serbia on Monday, in a move slammed by Belgrade as "unlawful". The synchronised raids by Kosovo police on Post of Serbia facilities will likely further cripple the services the postal service provides for ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo. "A police operation is being carried out in the north of Kosovo on the suspicion that they are operating illegally, unregistered and unlicensed post offices," Kosovo police said in a statement.
    "So far nine locations have been identified, where such illegal post offices operated." Police sealed off the facilities after allowing employees to take their personal belongings and leave. Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have been simmering for months, following a new rule earlier this year that made the euro the only legal currency in Kosovo and effectively outlawed use of the Serbian dinar. The move -- which came after EU- and US-backed negotiations failed -- sparked anger in Belgrade, which continues to finance a parallel health, education and social security system for the Serbian minority in Kosovo. Serb post offices were long used to receive funds, including pensions, and transfer money to financial institutions in Serbia. Serbian authorities slammed Monday's raids.
    "This is yet another example of the open display of force and unlawful actions by the temporary self-government institutions in Pristina," Serbia's Ministry of Information and Telecommunications said in a statement. The EU called Kosovo's move a "unilateral and uncoordinated step". "We call on the Kosovo government to reconsider its decision and to find a negotiated solution to this issue in the framework of the EU-facilitated Dialogue," EU foreign affairs spokesperson Peter Stano said in a statement. Animosity between Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s that drew a NATO intervention against Belgrade. Kosovo later declared independence in 2008, a move that Serbia has refused to acknowledge. Kosovo is overwhelmingly populated by ethnic Albanians, but in the northern stretches of the territory near the border with Serbia, ethnic Serbs remain the majority in several municipalities. (ANSA-AFP).