Petkovic: Closure of clinics and removal of school signs a direct blow by Pristina to Serbian healthcare and education institutions

Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petar Petkovic stated that the closure of two clinics in the villages of Suvo Grlo and Banje, as well as the removal of signs from primary schools in those places and from a secondary school in Srbica, represents a direct blow to Serbian healthcare and education institutions.

“By order of Albin Kurti, Pristina today, on Good Friday, in Serbian villages in the municipality of Srbica – Suvo Grlo and Banje, shut down the only two Serbian clinics in these places. With the closure of these healthcare institutions, more than 250 Serbs in the villages of Suvo Grlo and Banje have been directly left without healthcare and medical services, on the eve of the greatest Christian and Serbian holiday, Easter. The Office for Kosovo and Metohija will not allow our people to be left without healthcare and will find a way to help them,” Petkovic stressed.

As he added, during the incursion into the villages of Suvo Grlo and Banje, the signs bearing the names of both primary schools in these places were torn down, as well as the sign from the Secondary Technical School in Suvo Grlo.

“I immediately informed the mediator in the dialogue, Peter Sorensen, and all relevant representatives of the international community about these escalatory moves, because such actions by Pristina directly constitute a violation of the EU-brokered solution that ensures the uninterrupted functioning of Serbian educational and healthcare institutions in Kosovo and Metohija. I remind that the mediator in the dialogue, Peter Sorensen, publicly stated at a conference in Pristina on March 14 that the solution ‘prevents any interruption of healthcare and educational services.’”

Petkovic emphasized that this new escalatory move by Pristina represents a direct blow to Serbian healthcare and education institutions and comes just one day after Sorensen’s visit to Belgrade, clearly signaling that Pristina is taking unilateral and unlawful steps aimed at further escalating the situation on the ground.

“I expect an urgent reaction from international representatives, because such moves by Kurti strike at the very core of the reached agreement and the achievements of the dialogue, and must not pass without an immediate and adequate response from those who guaranteed the solution,” the Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija concluded.