Stosic: Pristina is denying Serbs the right to handle documents in their native language

By not selecting Serbian notaries, the message to Serbs in Kosovo is that there is no place for them in these institutions or their rights, Slobodan Stosic, Program Manager of the Center for Advocacy of Democratic Culture (ACDC), says for Kosovo Online. He explains that notaries will authenticate documents for Serbs in the Albanian language, which many of them do not understand.

"This is problematic not because all the notaries are Albanians, but because, by law, a notary can work in the language they speak, which means that in practice, all these notaries will authenticate documents in Albanian, a language that the minority community, namely the Serbian community, mostly does not understand," Stosic warns.

He notes that the Minister of Justice has not provided any explanation as to why at least one of the candidates from the Serbian community who applied did not get a position. Now, he says, we will have a situation where notaries in Zubin Potok and even in Gracanica will likely be Albanians, and they will very likely carry out their work in the Albanian language.

"The message being sent is that there is no place for Serbs in these institutions," he states.

He explains that Serbs in the north previously had to seek services from notaries in South Mitrovica and that only one of them worked with the Serbian community and accepted documents in the Serbian language.

"When he retired, that practice was abolished, which means that I don't expect anything different in the north. It is very likely that documents will be required in Albanian, and documents that are authenticated or notarized will also be in Albanian. This is just the beginning of many difficulties for the Serbian community in the north as well as in other municipalities," Stosic says.

Besides the problems Serbs will face, Stosic emphasizes that this move by the Pristina authorities will further deepen the divide between institutions and minority communities.

"It is extremely bad that minority communities are not included in the work of this institution. There is a risk that this will deepen the already existing mistrust between minority communities and central institutions in Pristina," he concludes.