Milojevic: The yellow vehicles of the Post of Serbia are a positive signal for the survival of the Serbs; arrests of our workers must not happen

Director of the Working Unit of the Post of Serbia in Kosovo, based in Gracanica, Ivan Milojevic, told Kosovo Online that situations should not happen in which workers of this company were detained and handcuffed because of something that had been operating for more than 20 years, and that was the transport of money in standard marked vehicles of the Post Office.

Milojevic said this on the occasion of yesterday's incident when members of the Kosovo Police had stopped and detained the driver and two employees of the Post of Serbia, who had been transporting money from the Treasury in Leposavic to North Mitrovica, at the checkpoint near the Bistrica Bridge. He points out that the yellow vehicles of the Post Office are the lifeblood and a positive signal for the survival of the Serbs in Kosovo.

"There have been various situations related to the Post of Serbia in Kosovo and Metohija, but yesterday's was a silent and unpleasant event. Namely, what happened was that the transport of money in standard marked vehicles of the Post was stopped, along with our workers who professionally perform their work, which is the transport of money and the functioning of the  Post of Serbia, everyone has known this for more than 20 years and that is nothing new," Milojevic said for Kosovo online.

Milojevic says that the employees of the Post of Serbia were released after more than seven hours and after they explained the procedure that is valid and has been going on for years, but it is not clear to him why they were stopped in the first place.

"Why was it stopped, why were the workers detained, why were they handcuffed and why were they held for more than seven hours? From the first moment, I was with them and through the process of examining, proving, where the money comes from, where the money goes... We repeated something that they know very well, which is that the money is from the Republic of Serbia, for all our citizens, not only for the Serbs, we should emphasize that. It is a more than fair service where mothers receive money for their children through child allowance, where the old and sick receive their subsidies and allowances, and where employees receive their salaries. If we look from the economic side, without any other connotation, it is something that is certainly significant, not only for the Serbs. Anyone who is well-intentioned should not in any way obstruct, prevent and, God forbid, stop it, neither now nor in the future, but rather develop, and support, which we, the employees and I as the director, try every day to improve, to improve and to have hope for the future," he adds.

Milojevic praised the officials at the customs terminal in South Mitrovica who, he said, had performed their work professionally.

"Customs was strictly professional, they know about this procedure of money flow and circulation, from entering Jarinje to every branch of the Post Office throughout Kosovo and Metohija, only words of praise for them. Investigative police officers from the central unit in Pristina for high economic crime were suspicious and uncomfortable at first, but then they calmed down when the director of customs informed them nicely in fluent Albanian, they understood. I believe that in the meantime, the international community also contacted them, during all those hours of detention, with the explanation that this is something that is of vital importance for the Serbian community in Kosovo and Metohija and that they must not touch it, whatever and whoever's intention was,” Milojevic says.

As for the expectations for the next period, Milojevic says that he expects that such things will not happen again.

"We must not have situations like this, where people are handcuffed, and detained because this did not start working yesterday, it has been working for more than 20 years. I appeal to the central authorities, to the international community in Kosovo, to simply know that the yellow vehicles of 'Post of Serbia' are the lifeblood and a positive signal for the survival of the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija," he concluded.