Kosovo authorities take control of railway infrastructure in the north

Kosovo authorities on Thursday morning took control of railway facilities and properties in Zvecan and Leposaviq, municipalities inhabited by a Serb majority in the north.

The Deputy Director of the Kosovo Police for the northern region, Veton Elshani, confirmed to Radio Free Europe that the Police have provided assistance during the takeover of railway station facilities, where the "Serbian Railways" signs have been removed, and new ones have been placed with the inscription "Kosovo Railway Infrastructure", along with the Kosovo flag.

Acting Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Sveçla, told reporters that laws must be implemented throughout the territory of Kosovo and that "Serbian Railways" is one of the last "parallel and illegal" institutions to have functioned.

Meanwhile, the acting Minister of Infrastructure, Dimal Basha, declared that "as of today, all public railway facilities and properties" in northern Kosovo have returned to the full management of the Public Enterprise INFRAKOS.

He said that the railway infrastructure in the north has so far been “usurped by illegal parallel Serbian structures.” Basha also stated that the railway in the north is a strategic part of Corridor X, which connects Kosovo to regional and international transport networks.

"This action facilitates the acceleration of the rehabilitation, modernization and functionalization of the railway infrastructure in the north of the country, in accordance with Kosovo's development priorities and state standards," he said.

Kosovo has closed almost all of Serbia's institutions that operated in Serb-majority areas after the war over the past two years. While Kosovo authorities say they are establishing law and order, members of the Serb community see these actions as "discrimination" or a form of "repression."

The international community has also criticized the closure of Serbian institutions by Kosovo authorities, emphasizing that non-majority communities should initially be provided with the services they have received through the Serbian system.

Minister Sveçla declared that Kosovo will not tolerate the functioning of Serbian institutions and that all of them will be closed.

"This [railway] is part of our network and, as the Minister of Infrastructure has emphasized, will be part of the projects for the reconstruction of the railway network," he said.

However, railway lines to northern Kosovo have not been in operation since 2008.

"Since 2008, we have not had any operations in the northern part," Infrakos spokesman Rafet Çitaku told Radio Free Europe, emphasizing that the interruption of lines to the northern part was done for "security and political reasons."

Meanwhile, rail traffic from Serbia to northern Kosovo and vice versa was operational until a few years ago.

The annual report of the Kosovo company Infrakos for 2024 states that they did not have access to the railways in the north and that it was expected that this issue would be raised within the framework of the dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade, but this did not happen.

"It is known that since March 3, 2008, Serbian parallel structures in northern Kosovo, with the help of Serbian Railways, have occupied the northern part of Railway Line 10, preventing Infrakos from having access to that part of the railway," the report states.

It is emphasized that for this reason, greater commitment from the responsible institutions of Kosovo is expected, so that Infrakos has access to the railways in the north.

Serbia refuses to close its institutions in Kosovo, but has relocated most of them to its border towns.

Kosovo also insists on integrating educational and health institutions that operate according to the Serbian system in areas where the Serbian community lives, which is encountering opposition from the local population, political representatives, and civil society.

The European Union has assessed that the issue of integrating these two sectors should be resolved within the framework of the dialogue for the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia. /REL