Morning in Bosniak Mahala peaceful, employees began their new workday in official premises

Morning in North Mitrovica is passing peacefully, after the midnight deadline for the eviction of Serbian institutions from the building in Bosniak Mahala, set by the administration of Albanian Mayor of North Mitrovica, Erden Atiq, has expired.

Employees in these institutions spent the night in their official premises, and as reported by Kosovo Online's correspondent, numerous journalists gathered in front of the building this morning.

Traffic in that part of the city is functioning normally, and there is no increased presence of Kosovo Police.

Employees at the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, the Provincial Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, the Vucitrn Social Work Center, and representatives of the Kosovo-Mitrovica Administrative District, whose working hours ended yesterday at 3 p.m., did not go home and are still at their workplaces. This was their way of responding to the deadline for the eviction of the institutions they work for from the building.

At the end of last month, the police and municipal inspectors entered the building in Bosniak Mahala and gave Serbian institutions a three-day deadline to leave their offices, but the forced eviction was postponed until September 8.

As Kosovo Online learns, a Western embassy in Pristina asked Atiq yesterday to once again postpone the decision on the forced eviction of Serbian institutions. Atiq reportedly responded positively to that request, and the forced eviction of Serbian institutions from the building in Bosniak Mahala has been postponed until after September 14, after a meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti in Brussels.

Incidentally, Kosovo Police received information yesterday that an explosive device was located in that building, but it was determined that the report was false. The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, reacted, stating that it was Kurti's "trick" to evict employees, which did not succeed.

Igor Simic, Vice President of the Serb List, stated that the attempts of Kosovo authorities to evict Serbian institutions from the building in Bosniak Mahala in North Mitrovica aimed to expel everything Serbian from Kosovo.

The European Union has also expressed concern over the decision of the authorities in North Mitrovica. Union Spokesperson Peter Stano stated, already during the first appearance of the police and municipal inspectors in the building, that this move did not contribute to efforts to de-escalate tensions in Kosovo.