New problems in Štrpce

Strpce residents are waiting to pay their EUR 26 installments to the Kosovo Electric Corporation, but KEK officials have failed to appear in the village. Strpce Municipal President Zvonko Mihajlovic said that they had received a call from the American embassy in Pristina around noon, calling for local officials to give the KEK team approval to come to the village and accept the money for the electricity, but to hand over control over the power station in Strpce to locals. New problems in Strpce “Authority over the power station in Strpce belongs to Elektroprivreda Serbia (EPS) and they are the only ones that can discuss the possibly of giving up control of their own property. Even though it seemed that we were close to a solution, it now seems that we are moving further away from one,” Mihajlovic said. "An emergency meeting of the local assembly was held on Monday, where officials said that EPS officials should be present in order to discuss the problem," Mihajlovic said. He said that Serbs had reached an agreement with KEK on Thursday to pay the EUR 26 lump sum, which will be paid to KEK’s account, and to sign a collective agreement with the company. “Since KEK officials did not show up today, we cannot expect a normalization of the situation during the weekend,” Mihajlovic said. He said that people living on welfare in Strpce would receive several thousand dinars from the Ministry for Kosovo in order to pay the installment, or part of it, and that the Social Work Center would issue them social cards as well. As far as the power station in Strpce is concerned, EPS has control over it, according to Mihajlovic, and Serbs would be ready to have four KEK employees working there if Kosovo Ministry officials approved such a move. Strpce has been without power since June 30. Residents were under a strict regime for the first ten days and had electricity from midnight to 7:00 CET. Since July 11, they have been completely without electricity. Several hundred Serbs in Strpce protested peacefully on Thursday with a peaceful march, trying to draw the attention of the local and international public to their plight and a humanitarian catastrophe with unforeseeable consequences. The situation is very difficult in Strpce. The lack of electricity has started to have an impact on people’s health, with problems being caused in providing health services, refrigerating food and the functioning of collective centers housing 320 internally displaced people.

New problems in Štrpce

“Authority over the power station in Štrpce belongs to Elektroprivreda Serbia (EPS) and they are the only ones that can discuss the possibly of giving up control of their own property. Even though it seemed that we were close to a solution, it now seems that we are moving further away from one,” Mihajlović said.

"An emergency meeting of the local assembly was held on Monday, where officials said that EPS officials should be present in order to discuss the problem," Mihajlović said.

He said that Serbs had reached an agreement with KEK on Thursday to pay the EUR 26 lump sum, which will be paid to KEK’s account, and to sign a collective agreement with the company.

“Since KEK officials did not show up today, we cannot expect a normalization of the situation during the weekend,” Mihajlović said.

He said that people living on welfare in Štrpce would receive several thousand dinars from the Ministry for Kosovo in order to pay the installment, or part of it, and that the Social Work Center would issue them social cards as well.

As far as the power station in Štrpce is concerned, EPS has control over it, according to Mihajlović, and Serbs would be ready to have four KEK employees working there if Kosovo Ministry officials approved such a move.

Štrpce has been without power since June 30. Residents were under a strict regime for the first ten days and had electricity from midnight to 7:00 CET. Since July 11, they have been completely without electricity.

Several hundred Serbs in Štrpce protested peacefully on Thursday with a peaceful march, trying to draw the attention of the local and international public to their plight and a humanitarian catastrophe with unforeseeable consequences.

The situation is very difficult in Štrpce. The lack of electricity has started to have an impact on people’s health, with problems being caused in providing health services, refrigerating food and the functioning of collective centers housing 320 internally displaced people.