In the north of Kosovo and Metohija, where mostly Serbs live, all shops, pharmacies, gas stations, as well as cafes and hotels are closed since this morning. Bread is enough only for hospitals and kindergartens, and instead of milk and yogurt, patients and children will be given herbal tea.
The closure of stores with essential goods, which in the province itself is estimated as a humanitarian disaster, is the result of the policy of the authorities of the self-proclaimed “Republic of Kosovo”. At the end of last year, a duty of 100% on importing products from Central Serbia, which is mainly used in the north of the disputed region, led to the current situation.
“Fears of a humanitarian catastrophe, unfortunately, come true. And this is in the presence of the international community, which closes its eyes on the monstrous measures of Pristina,” the Belgrade-based Politics cites the words of the chairman of the Union of Entrepreneurs in the north of Kosovo, Radosh Petrovic.
“For seven months, we are warning all international organizations to put pressure on Pristina, and no one can hear us,” said Petrovic.
In November 2018, authorities in Pristina imposed a 100 percent duty on all goods from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, thus depriving the goods, including essential goods, of Serbs in the north of the disputed region. This economic and political measure has also become a new stumbling block in the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina to resolve the situation in Kosovo and Metohija.