Pensioners from Paralovo on the CBK's decision: We don't know how we will receive the pensions; their only goal is to expel the Serbian people

Pensioners from Paralovo, near Gnjilane, Zivojin Ristic and Stanko Simic, used to receive their pensions at home until recently, however, following the regulation of the Central Bank of Kosovo banning transactions in dinars, they fear and are concerned about how they will receive money for their next pension, which, they emphasize, is small, and the journey to Bujanovac is long and costly.

Zivojin Ristic, 74, is no longer able to drive due to his age, and his sons cannot afford to take time off work to drive him to the nearest place in central Serbia to collect his pension.

"I don't know what we'll do about the pension, the only way out is to pay for transportation and go to Bujanovac to collect it. Now, is it worth it? Let everyone think about that. For those 20 thousand, I have to spend half on transportation, while before, the postman would deliver it to my home address. I didn't have any problems, and I wasn't worried," Ristic said for Kosovo Online.

He says he's old enough to understand the intentions of the Kosovo authorities, which in this case, he emphasizes, is for the remaining Serbian population to move from Kosovo.

"Their only intention, as they imagine it and want to do, is to expel the Serbian people from Kosovo. That's the only intention I see from them, because you can't deal with them in a nice way, through dialogue and ordinary speech, that is worthless to them. Their only goal is to expel the Serbian people, and we'll see what happens next," Ristic says.

Stanko Simic, also a pensioner from Paralovo, is 83 and cannot recall a time when he couldn't collect his salary or pension, which, he emphasizes, he earned through hard work. However, he hopes that the dinar will "return to Kosovo."

"I hope the dinar will return. Maybe there will be some struggles, but the dinar must be returned to Kosovo because our dinar has existed for many years, and surely no one can abolish it. I am sure of that. Foreigners will struggle a bit to solve that problem, but I believe the problem will be solved," Simic said.

When asked what they will do if that doesn't happen, Simic responds:

"If that doesn't happen, then there is no other choice but to collect it in Serbia or to move out, mass migration, there's no other way. When we start to move out massively, someone will surely come to their senses and say, 'This can't go on'," Simic said.

He emphasized that since 1999, Serbs in Kosovo had been living difficult lives and barely surviving.

"We struggle, we try to somehow preserve our heritage or, better said, stay in our ancestral homes. Kosovo authorities, this one who's in power now, Kurti, there hasn't been greater evil, nor will there ever be. He is a vengeful man who seeks revenge on the neighboring people, or, better said, even his own people. He seeks revenge on his own people, because look at how many people there used to be in Kosovo and how many there are today. A good portion of his people have left. He wants to expel us, that's true, to have no Serbs in Kosovo, but that will never happen. He has done evil to his own people, and his people have left. Now, for pensions, even his people suffer a lot because they have pensions from Serbia. They have the same problem as us. He is a man who succumbs to other people's ideas because I believe he is not doing this alone, someone advises him," Simic said.

In Paralovo, a village about fifteen kilometers from Gnjilane, there are about 35 active households, and the residents are mainly engaged in agriculture.