Kosovo Serbs Called to Boycott New IDs
A Kosovo Serb in Gracanica 17 October 2008 Gracanica_Belgrade and Kosovo Serb representatives on Friday called on Kosovo's Serbs to boycott the country's newly issued identity cards. Kosovo presented its new IDs a week ago when 25 citizens, five of them Kosovo Serbs, received their ID’s in a ceremony held in Pristina. The IDs will replace the old cards issued by the UN Mission to Kosovo, UNMIK. “I appeal on all Serbs and non-Albanians to resist the pressures of Kosovo's institutions and not to take travel documents and ID’s issued by them,” said Belgrade’s Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic while on a visit to a Serb enclave in the west of the newly independent state. The Serbian National Council based in Gracanica also issued a ‘boycott statement’ and asked Belgrade to “undertake all measures to prevent the further issuing of Kosovo documents to Serbs in Kosovo”. “We also appeal to Serbs in Kosovo not to fall under pressure and not to accept such identity documents, which directly legalize the illegally proclaimed state of Kosovo, ” said the statement and asked the international community guarantee all rights to the Kosovo Serbs when they present valid documents issued by Serbia. They claim that in the past week there have been incidents where Kosovo Serbs have been pressured to take up a new Kosovo ID, but that these cases have been hushed up by the local police, a claim that was denied by police spokesperson Veton Elshani. “What has been valid for the police until now will be valid in the future, until any new decision is made. The police have never maltreated anyone, or told him ‘Why do you have a Serbian ID? Where previous documents issued by UNMIK expired we have to do something about that, but I don’t believe we will mistreat people just because they don’t have Kosovo’s IDs,” said Elshani. http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/14076/
