Pristina has banned transport of books in the Serbian language on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, and they are confiscated by customs officials at crossings with Serbia, learned the paper.

The escalation of the problem has been confirmed with the letter sent by the Serbian Post Office on 2 June 2016 to its employees requesting them to warn their clients who are sending books through this company to Kosovo and Metohija, that Post Office wont bear any expenses if books are confiscated at administrative crossings.

Paper’s finding was confirmed by the Deputy Kosovo Prime Mistier Branimir Stojanović, who said that there is information that books in Serbian language have been confiscated at administrative crossings. “So far those were sporadic cases, however currently it has become a practice. Even books meant for a presentation at fairs were not allowed to be distributed by Serbian publishing companies. There is no official decision on that by the Kosovo government and I will ask that they provide me with the document that serves as the basis for the ban on distribution of books in the Serbian language,” said Stojanović, and added that maybe some ministry has brought internal act about which they have no information.

A director of the Serbian publishing company, who didn’t want to reveal his identity, explained that when his delivery officer went to a post office in Zemun to send a book to Kosovo, a post official refused to accept the package unless the statement was signed that they won’t claim expenses if books are confiscated. “This is a shame, state has to react since it is obvious that Pristina wants to suppress the Serbian language,” he said.

Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija is not aware of this issue. “If Pristina has introduced such ban, this would be a fascist approach of their authorities. We’ll see what it is about,” paper learned from the Office.