In November 2022, Serbian members of the Kosovo Police, the judiciary and the prosecution in the north of the country resigned.
Their resignations followed the decision of the Serbian List to leave the central institutions of Kosovo.
These three institutions show how the work continued after their resignation, how the replacement was made and whether there was a case of any Serbian member who requested to return to work.
The head of the EULEX mission in Kosovo, Giovanni Pietro Barbano, expects the return of Serbian judges and prosecutors to these two institutions.
According to him, such a thing is possible because their resignations have not been accepted by KPK and KGjK.
“This is again a vacuum that needs to be filled, you cannot leave a territory without police service or without justice. So, of course, now the effect is that the presence of the Kosovo Police in the north, the composition of the Kosovo Police in the north does not reflect the percentage composition of the population. However, we welcomed the last two streams of new cadets that reflected in the selection of cadets we sent to the north, better reflected the composition of minorities. Of course, the numbers are still not enough to give the perfect percentage, but maybe we are on the right way to solve this aspect. The problem is that some of these cadets suffered from threats, and some of them decided to resign from the Kosovo Police. The other aspect related to the mission concerns the resignation of judges and prosecutors in the north. Their return is possible. It is possible because their resignation has not been accepted by the Council of Justice of Kosovo and by the Prosecution Council of Kosovo. So, if they decide to return, they will be welcomed in their institutions. And we, of course, look forward to such a return”, he declares for Kosova Press.
The Basic Court in Mitrovica says that there was no request for return to work, while denying that the resigned Serbian judges appear on the payroll.
“We, as the Court, have not accepted such a request, and as far as the issue of salaries is concerned, the immediate reaction of the KJC to the removal from the salary list is public. The resignation affected the first 2-3 months, but not after that, since the Court has been re-organized and stabilized. If we compare the statistical report for the courses accepted and completed in 2022, with the courses accepted and completed in 2023, it results that in 2023 the percentage of completion of courses was 91%, compared to the year 2022 which was 79 %”, further highlighted in this answer.
The number of Serbian judges who have resigned is 24. The Basic Court in Mitrovica through a written answer says that the total number of administrative staff who have left this institution exceeds the number of 100.
“The number of Serbian judges resigned on 07.11.2022 is a total of 24, of them 20 from the Mitrovica Basic Court, 2 from the Leposaviq branch, 2 from the Zubin Potok branch, while the total number of resigned administrative staff is 110. As a first measure that the Court has undertaken is the change of the work plan, this change-plan approved by the Judicial Council of Kosovo, with which the judges and support staff have been re-organized, moving them within the departments, in order to cover empty positions. The work continued normally, initially with the handling of urgent cases (18 cases with measures, 7 were related to the criminal offense-Murder) as well as cases from the civil division (Protection Order)”, says the written response of the Basic Court in Mitrovica .
Even the deputy director of the Police in the north of Kosovo, Veton Elshani, says that no resigned Serbian policeman accepts a salary.
“Police procedures also allow the possibility to have a month’s leave without pay, two months to three months, and these periods of time can be used by us, especially in the north of the country at that time, at the beginning they were used because now they are not , to give the police officers a chance not to resign. The reason why we made concessions for personnel was the great pressure that was put on them and we know it. But, there is no policeman who has resigned and that there is a decision issued for resignation that accepts a salary”, he declares.
He adds that the number of police officers in the north of the country is gradually being replenished. Elshani says that there was a request to return to work, but after issuing the decision to resign, such a thing cannot happen.
“Now we have somewhere around 70, the total number of law enforcement officers is around 320. We don’t have any problem, we are filling the number as it should gradually, we don’t have any problem filling the numbers… However, the policemen who have resigned and the decision on resignation has been issued, all of them will not return to office. We have had several policemen who resigned, we had a case when they applied for return, there were some of them who applied, but one of them returned because he was not issued the decision to resign. At the moment when the resignation decision is issued, there is no police officer who returns to duty. There were more than 500 policemen (who were issued the decision to resign), it was issued to all of them. All those who have offered to resign, there is a time limit which is taken into account by the personnel in the General Directorate of Police in Prishtina and then decisions on resignation are issued. For those who have been issued resignation decisions, all of them have left and have no possibility to return”, he adds.
The spokesman of the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Mitrovica, Valon Preteni, declares that after the resignation of the Serbian community, they faced difficulties in handling cases.
“The Basic Prosecutor’s Office of Mitrovica, with the resignation of the prosecutors from the Serbian community and the administrative staff, has faced difficulties in handling the cases with which the Serbian prosecutors were charged, as well as representing cases in court, performing administrative and other tasks . However, with the maximum commitment of the chief prosecutor, prosecutors and administrative staff, it has been achieved that the daily tasks and obligations are carried out. Recently, with the maximum commitment of the acting chief state prosecutor, Besim Kelmendi, four prosecutors, two prosecutors from the Appeals Prosecution and two prosecutors from the basic prosecutions, were temporarily transferred to the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Mitrovica for a period of six months. And we consider that it will have a positive impact on the work of the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Mitrovica”, says Preteni.
Currently, four prosecutors in the Department for Serious Crimes, two prosecutors in the Juvenile Department and seven prosecutors in the General Department of this prosecution are engaged in the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Mitrovica.
KosovaPress has also sent questions to the Prosecution Council of Kosovo, the same say that since the resignation of the prosecutors, no one has returned to the prosecutorial system.
“Immediately after the resignations of prosecutors and administrative staff from the ranks of the Serbian community in the Basic Prosecutor’s Office in Mitrovica (November 7, 2022), the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council (KPK) made a decision to suspend their salaries and since then none of them have returned of them in the prosecution system”, says the response of the Prosecution Council of Kosovo.
Even the Judicial Council of Kosovo and the Police of Kosovo have said that none of those who resigned have returned to work and have not received salary compensation.
