Five Kosovo Serb villages without electricity
"for a week" - Serbian body
BBC Monitoring Europe (Political) - January 24, 2006, Tuesday
Text of report by Serbian independent news agency FoNet
Belgrade, 24 January: Five Serb-populated villages in Lipljan municipality has
been without electricity for a whole week now, and households in the Serb
enclaves of Strpce and Gorazdevac have been without electricity for 50 hours
continuously, said the International Press Centre of the Coordination Centre
[for Kosovo-Metohija, headed by Sanda Raskovic-Ivic] in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Parts of Lipljan, Novo Naselje and the villages of Skulanovo, Suvi Do, Lepina
and Radevo, populated by around 4,000 ethnic Serbs, have been without
electricity for a week, and as the inhabitants use water from a well-pump, there
is also no water, a statement from the Coordination Centre for Kosovo-Metohija
said.
The statement noted that the Kosovo Energy Corporation [KEK] was making the
situation worse because they are demanding that the Serbs sign contracts to give
up their demand that the Serbian Electric Power Industry (EPS) should be the
electricity provider for Serb-populated areas.
Strpce inhabitants said that none of the Serb villages in the enclave except for
Urosevac have electricity.
In the area of central Kosovo, in Gracanica, Orahovac and Velika Hoca,
restrictions of electric energy are also significant.
The director of [Serbian state-owned mobile operator] Telekom [Srbija] for
Kosovo-Metohija, Ilija Ivanovic, said that the mobile telephone sector was
operating, except for in the area of Ugljare village where cables were cut last
week.
Source: FoNet news agency, Belgrade, in Serbian
1449 gmt 24 Jan 06
Copyright 2006 British Broadcasting Corporation
Posted for Fair Use only.