FTN IN KOSOVSKA MITROVICA GIVEN AN ULTIMATUM: Either relocation or a contract with Pristina authorities!

The Faculty of Technical Sciences, which operates within the system of the Republic of Serbia and as part of the University of Priština with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica, has been given a deadline of 30 days to relocate or sign a contract with the University of Priština, Rector Nebojša Arsić confirmed to KoSSev. Belgrade and the international community have been informed.

The text of the letter that Rector Nebojša Arsić read in a statement to KoSSev, and which representatives of the Kosovo University of Priština delivered today to the Serbian rectorate, contains the following:

“For the current illegal user of the parcel owned by the University of Priština of the Republic of Kosovo.

Professor Arben Hajrulahu – Rector of the University

Topic – Subject: Request for the release of the usurped property

Cadastral Service of the Municipality of North Mitrovica

Voluntary release and its handover to the lawful owner – the University of Priština of the Republic of Kosovo;

Initiation of a formal request to regulate a bilateral legal relationship for use, whereby the University of Priština remains at disposal.”

Arsić: A direct attack on FTN

“Yes, unfortunately that is the case, I won’t say that it surprises me particularly, but the tone of the letter itself, it is written by the rector of that university – written to a fellow rector, and there is no ‘dear colleague,’ ‘I apologize,’ they did not even bother to write the name of the institution, but rather: ‘to the one who illegally occupied the building,’” Arsić said in his first reaction after receiving the letter.

On the other hand, although, as Arsić notes, it was typed in perfect Serbian, the letter was delivered without prior notice.

At the time of delivery of the letter, Rector Nebojša Arsić was not present at the location.

He also states that the representatives of the University of Priština did not identify themselves – but instead, as he says, left it with faculty colleagues.

Surprised, as he describes, by the inappropriate behavior of colleagues from Priština.

Nevertheless, he accepted the letter, only in order, according to his words, to later show it to everyone, that is, to the international community.

The letter is, for Rector Arsić, testimony to the kind of relationship the Kosovo authorities show toward Serbs in Kosovo, in this case toward another academic institution, KoSSev reports.

“Otherwise I would have refused it immediately since the name of my institution is not stated, I am not obliged to receive it,” he further emphasized.

According to Arsić, this action represents a “direct attack” on the Faculty of Technical Sciences (FTN).

Whose parcel is it

Arsić says that according to the letter, the University of Priština within the Kosovo system believes that the Serbian university, that is FTN, has no right to the building in which the faculty is housed, and the land on which the faculty is located.

However, Arsić claims that this is not true, and that the faculty is located on Trepča’s parcel.

“They write that it is theirs on their parcel, that is not true. I was the dean of that faculty and I know it inside out, those are two parcels – owned by Trepča: the courtyard and the building.”

When asked whether it is nevertheless true that FTN is not even located on Trepča’s parcel, given that this company, in the scanned maps of parcels it claims are theirs, which it published a month ago, did not show the FTN building, that is, the parcel, the rector confirms this, adding:

“This parcel that they cited is not the parcel on which the building is located at all, you are right, because we immediately went into the cadastre to look for those numbers and saw that the numbers do not match. Those numbers do not exist at all. They are requesting parcel 2546-2. We did not find that parcel in the cadastre, it does not exist, as far as we could see.”

We reported it to all international addresses

With the content of the letter, and generally with the information about what happened today at the University, international addresses in Priština have been informed – the OSCE, which has already requested a copy of the letter, UNMIK, the EU, as well as the Quint.

Belgrade has also been informed.

We are waiting for instructions

Speaking about the 30-day deadline and the next steps, he states that “we are waiting for instructions.”

He “certainly will not,” as he said – respond to this request:

“Because it is not addressed institutionally but to an N.N. person. I hope that by then the international community will react. We are powerless here as an institution, we do not have the capacity to deal with this, neither legal nor any other, nor are we in the Kosovo system to be able to defend ourselves before the commercial court.”

He adds that so far today no one from the international community has reacted, except the OSCE.

The fate of the University of Priština with a seat in Kosovska Mitrovica

Otherwise, the issue of the status of the University of Priština with a temporary seat in Kosovska Mitrovica has been reactivated in recent years, especially over the past year. Priština, led by Kosovo’s caretaker prime minister Albin Kurti, has stated that the integration of education and healthcare from majority-Serb areas is inevitable, previously carrying out actions in which facilities housing dozens of services of the Republic of Serbia were taken over.

On the other hand, negative reactions and disagreement are coming from Belgrade and the Serbian side, but of significantly milder intensity compared to the determination of the Kosovo authorities.

As far as international representatives are concerned, apart from occasional statements opposing unilateral actions by Kosovo authorities from certain Western addresses, such as the United States, it is emphasized that the integration of education and healthcare into the Kosovo system is also necessary, but that it must be carried out with the consent and cooperation of local Serbs.

The University has meanwhile been additionally burdened by the announced implementation of the Law on Foreigners and Vehicles, which, if and when the laws from 2017 are fully applied, will administratively complicate the stay of students and teaching staff if they are not registered or licensed in the Kosovo system.

As in other institutions of the Republic of Serbia in recent days, and at several faculties in Kosovska Mitrovica today as well, students were asked, as KoSSev unofficially learns from several sources, including the students themselves, to state whether they possess Kosovo documents, KoSSev writes.

“These pieces of information are needed in order to point out the harmfulness of the application of the Law on Foreigners announced by the provisional institutions in Priština,” students were told, at least those with whom we spoke today.