Serbs in northern Kosovo will not allow the Kosovo Privatization Agency (KPA) to sell the property of 11 Serbian companies north of the Ibar River. After trying to sell for the cheap price the Castings factory from Lesak, the workers said that the companies were built by Serbia, in order to stop the migration of Serbian population, so the fate of the companies should be decided by local governments. The companies are located in Zvecan, Zubin Potok and northern Mitrovica.
Mayor of Leposavic, Dragan Jablanović, who is also a member of the management team for the implementation of the Brussels agreement, says that KPA, without the knowledge of the local government, tried to sell the property of several companies, like it is trading company “Univerzal” and part of “Kristal”.
“Without our knowledge and without any consultation with local authorities, only for 50,000 Euro was sold the property of “Univerzal”, which worth hundreds of thousands of euros” – says Jablanovic. “In similar way was sold the Department store in Leposavic, to the Serb, behind whom is Albanian buyer. We didn’t allow to those “buyers” to further sell our property. Pristina also decided to sell “Petoletka” factory and agricultural cooperatives in Leposavic.
“We will not allow them to sell even one machine, let alone a factory, because it is a property of our citizens,” says Stevan Vulović, mayor of Zubin Potok. “Some of the production lines are already working, for some we are looking for strategic partners, and there are donors from abroad. We have more and more understanding with the representatives of the international community in Kosovo,” he said.
If Pristina, as planned, shut down and sell the most important factories in the north, about 1,000 Serbian families in the north will remain without basic living conditions and they will migrate which is, as many claim, the main goal of Pristina.
