The protest of the Serbs was held in North Mitrovica: The CBK decision means abolishing life for the Serbs

Several thousand citizens gathered today in North Mitrovica, at the Square of the Milic Brothers, to peacefully and democratically express their dissatisfaction with the abolition of the dinar and unilateral actions by Pristina.

Among those gathered were representatives of various unions, healthcare workers, students, and retirees.

The gathered citizens carried banners with slogans such as "Europe, open your eyes", "This is occupation", "Without social benefits, we won't even have food", and "UN 1244 help".

The assembly began with singing the Serbian anthem "Boze pravde".

Dusanka Djorovic from the Pensioners' Association stated that the decision to abolish the dinar meant abolishing the right to life.

"I address you today as a representative of the oldest fellow citizens who have spent their entire working lives here and built the future. Here we raised children and welcomed our grandchildren. The decision to abolish the dinar, to prevent us from withdrawing our pensions, means that our bread is taken away from us, and our right to life is taken away. If it is known that there is no Serbian food in stores, no Serbian medicines in pharmacies. What will become of us? I want to clarify to everyone the big lie that we can open accounts in some banks and withdraw pensions. These banks do not recognize the inflow of funds based on the decisions of our pensions realized by the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund of the Republic of Serbia," she said.

She asked the international community if this represented a dignified old age.

"Instead of spending our old age with our grandchildren, in this way, with all of you on the streets, we are realizing our basic elemental rights to a piece of bread and life. We ask the international community if this is a dignified old age. We want nothing foreign, only what we have earned honestly and fairly. Alongside us, who receive Serbian pensions, thousands of others, Albanians, Gorans, and others, receive pensions like us. We are not asking for anything, we invite the entire democratic world to hear us. We are worried; we need this decision to be revoked and enable the delivery of dinars to our banks and post offices. We need to live like the rest of the normal world, today. Thanks to all who supported us by coming to the gathering," she emphasized.

Dr. Dragana Milenkovic, a regular Professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Pristina with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica, said that the decision of the Central Bank of Kosovo to abolish payment transactions in dinars in Kosovo meant abolishing life for the Serbs.

Pointing out that the first dinar was forged in Novo Brdo in Kosovo in 1214, she emphasized that the Serbian currency had survived in Kosovo and Metohija even in the worst times of occupation.

On behalf of professors, students, and associates, and as a professor at the Faculty of Economics, she emphasized that this CBK decision was discriminatory, politically inspired, and threatened the survival of the Serbs.

She says that a question arises of how parents will buy food for their children, how students will receive scholarships, pay tuition fees, take exams...

"Personal incomes for employees are being abolished, life is being abolished contrary to the universal values on which the modern European Union is based," Milenkovic emphasized.

Recalling that on January 17th, the CBK announced that this decision would come into effect on February 1st, and they said it had been made based on the Constitution of Kosovo and laws, she asked whether the constitution of so-called Kosovo was stronger than all international agreements.

"How is this constitution valid when it abolishes rights for the Serbs, but not valid when it is necessary to return the land to the Decani Monastery? How is it valid when the Serbs' right to speech, and language is being abolished? Instead of moving towards normalization, we have a move from Pristina that sets us back ten years," Milenkovic emphasized.

She points out that the euro, as the only currency, was introduced by Kurti to deal with the Serbs.

"This is not a step forward towards peace and stability; we know that this is a man who advocates social populism and nationalism. There is no step he has taken to make the Serbs feel better," she emphasized, adding that after the bombing and persecution, the Serbs in Kosovo had got Kurti who had placed the Serbs in ghettos.

"We're not even safe there," she emphasizes, recalling daily arrests, seizure of cultural heritage, and other forms of harassment.

She asked the international community how they had allowed this, and she told EU representatives not to allow one man to jeopardize everything that the EU had advocated for decades in that area, which was peace and stability.

Svetlana Stevic, the Director of the " Mother of the Nine Jugoviches" soup kitchens, emphasized that the Serbs had gathered today to show the world they were in a difficult situation.

"We must be united and unified, to remain in our centuries-old hearths. It is not easy to be a Serb, especially where we are. Shrines speak for us, confirming the centuries-old identity of the Serbs. Even for 11 years, the Serbian Orthodox Church has been providing assistance to the most vulnerable. People don't ask for anything special, they ask for the right to life, the right to freedom, and the right to bread. It's hard when you know someone is hungry, and you are helpless because someone in Pristina refuses to hear that cry for help. In the 21st century, only we, Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija, do not have democracy. How do we explain to our children that everything has been denied to us? How can the world understand that the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija are disappearing?" Stevic asked.

As she added, it had never been easy, but the fight continued to provide freedom for our children.

"So that our children have education, healthcare, so that they don't forbid our language and history. How will we continue? What will we feed our children with if our money is forbidden? We are a people who have survived everything, and we will survive this too because the Lord is with us. We will strengthen our prayers and regularly visit our shrines, and from here we will send a message that we are united," Stevic stated.

Vesna Martinovic, the director of the Elementary School in Uglare, stated today at the protest rally in North Mitrovica regarding the decision of the CBK to ban the dinar that this was not just a simple decision but a lock for all Serbian schools in Kosovo and a denial of the right to education for Serbian children.

She emphasized that the Serbs from all parts of Kosovo had gathered today, from Gotovusa, Uglare, Gracanica...

"We have come for the international community to see us and hear us. To hear about the problems that we have been living with for more than two decades. When they bombed us in 1999 under the pretext of protecting the human rights of the Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija, the international community seemed not to see and not to know that the Serbs have been living in these areas for years, so I ask where our rights are. Each of us knows how we live and knows how sometimes it is unbearably difficult, only now it constantly lasts," Martinovic concluded.

She emphasized that as an educational worker and on behalf of all parents, she demanded that basic rights to earnings and a normal life not be denied to the Serbs in Kosovo.

"What the authorities in Pristina are doing by banning the dinar, they know very well that it's not just a ban on the dinar; it's actually a lock on all Serbian schools, and therefore on the right to education for our children," she pointed out.

She believes that the Serbs in Kosovo cannot function without the use of the dinar and appealed to the international community to hear the plea of the Serbs and reason with the Government in Pristina.

She points out that the Serbs in Pristina are being asked to remain silent and submit to every decision, explaining that it is impossible for people to go to administrative crossings to collect their salaries.

"We believe that there are those who understand that with this decision, our right to work and freedoms, which are taken for granted everywhere in the world, are being denied to us. They say we can open accounts, but I ask on what basis and whether those are acceptable to the banks that operate according to the Kosovo system. We all know that this is unfeasible. How can Serbian schools and education function under such conditions without hindrance? Our hands are tied, we are eliminating the possibility of modernizing and digitizing our schools. There is no way to improve teaching. These living conditions have long deserved condemnation from the international community," Martinovic assessed.

She warns that by abolishing the dinar, the question arises of how children will receive scholarships, child benefits, and how supplies for work will be procured, from chalk and sponges to computers and interactive boards.

The ban on the dinar, she says, not only complicates the normal life of the Serbs in Kosovo but also seeks to completely prohibit it.

"This is not a political speech; this is just a plea from me as a mother and a teacher to protect us from the rash and ill-considered decisions of individuals. I call on all relevant actors from the international community and our state to protect each one of us and ensure our survival in Kosovo and Metohija," she stated.

She expressed hope that the pleas of the Serbs would be heard and that families in the future will celebrate the successes of students, rather than worry about whether the continuation of their education in Kosovo would be possible.

Dragisa Milovic from the Clinical Hospital Center in Kosovska Mitrovica told those gathered at the rally that the Serbs must persevere because they were at home in Kosovo, and that they should respond to all provocations calmly and dignifiedly.

"I sincerely hope that there is justice for us Serbs, and the international community must say 'enough is enough' to the oppression of the Serbs in Kosovo. What has sustained us so far is unity. We must be united, respect each other, and continue to fight together, more united than ever, with the help of our home country, and the support of our Church, to secure what rightfully belongs to us, and that is a peaceful life," Milovic conveyed.

Speaking on behalf of healthcare workers, Milovic says that they are today, as they have been all these years, with their people.

Doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, and support staff have come, he says, to support the peaceful, democratic, magnificent rally and to express dissatisfaction and disagreement with the unilateral decision to abolish the dinar.

"That decision is directly aimed at our Serbs and threatens our existence; its goal is to abolish Serbian institutions. It's not only targeted against the Serbs but also against minority communities, including the Albanians who receive pensions in dinars. And all this is happening in front of the international community," Milovic emphasized.

As he says, even after 25 years, they have come to a situation where they have to tell the world and Europe that the Serbs in Kosovo are second-class citizens, that their basic human rights are being trampled on, and that a silent exodus threatens them.

"With this absurd decision, those who are most vulnerable will be affected - the elderly, the sick, retirees, but also students, and pupils. When it comes to healthcare, it's not just about salaries for employees, but also about how we will supply the hospital with medicines," Milovic pointed out and recalled that 1,600 people were employed in the Clinical Hospital Center in Kosovska Mitrovica and that the Serbs, Albanians, Bosniaks, Roma people, and Gorans were treated there.

"With this decision, everyone's fundamental human right - the right to healthcare - will be endangered, and that is why this is an opportunity to call on those who decide, representatives of the international community, representatives of the Quint, to overturn this decision. Pristina and Kurti have no right to ban the dinar; Serbia has the right to finance its citizens, and this is agreed upon in the Brussels Agreement - it has the right to finance schools, kindergartens, hospitals, local self-governments, which are the foundations of the CSM," Milovic said.

However, as he adds, the Community of Serb-majority Municipalities, which was supposed to be formed 11 years ago, Pristina still refuses to form.

He recalled the incidents in Pristina regarding the healthcare system.

"More than 400 times they have stopped ambulances, searched doctors, vaccination has been banned, they have entered the premises of the Clinical Hospital Center in Kosovska Mitrovica with armored vehicles. For all these years, our right to freedom of movement, the right to language, has been denied to us. This is an opportunity to say that we do not agree with the unilateral actions taken by Albin Kurti," Milovic emphasized.

Recalling that at the UN Security Council meeting, 13 out of 15 countries agreed that the one who was causing problems and constantly causing trouble was Kurti, Milovic said that the Serbs were committed to peace.

"We are fighting for survival, fighting for our children to live normally like everywhere else in the world, to go to school, to have a peaceful life, cultural content, and we have witnessed for 25 years that we have none of that," Milovic concluded.