New Kosova Report

UNMIK finally reopens court in northern Mitrovica

Friday, 03 October 2008

Mitrovica court house (file photo)

UNMIK has reopened the court building in northern Mitrovica in an attempt to establish law and order in the problematic northern Kosovo town.

Two judges, two international prosecutors, and several legal experts entered on Friday morning the building of the district court in Mitrovica. UNMIK says that the staff will increase gradually to be replaced later in the year by local Albanian and Serbian staff.

Yesterday several hundred Serbs in Mitrovica and more than one hundred in Gracanica in central Kosovo protested against the reopening of the courts and the implementation of the EULEX mission in Kosovo.

The court suspended work after the violent protest of Serb mobs against the employment of Albanians by the court, which resulted with the death of a 25-year-old UNMIK police member from Ukraine.

Chief of UN Mission in Kosovo, Lamberto Zannier, stated that the reopening of courts is the first step in establishing order for all citizens.

Through a press release, Zannier expressed his satisfaction that Belgrade and Prishtina supported the refunctionalization of the courts in the north.

In the absence of courts, customs posts and significant police presence, the Serb-majority northern Kosovo has become a center of interethnic smuggling and other illicit activity.