Kosovo Serbs flee crackdown on Belgrade-backed system

A quiet but steady exodus is gradually emptying Serb-majority areas in Kosovo, amid a growing crackdown on Belgrade-backed institutions that has left some neighbourhoods deserted.

Although reliable data from areas in cities like Mitrovica is lacking, residents and observers say more and more ethnic Serbs are fleeing Kosovo and resettling in Serbia, as authorities close banks, post offices and municipal buildings that have long supported their community.

"The Serbian people are disappearing from Kosovo. Unfortunately, no one keeps records," said Momcilo Trajkovic, president of the Serbian National Forum, an advocacy group from Gracanica in central Kosovo.

"Twenty per cent of students who finish middle school have gone to high school in Serbia. And their parents have gone with them," Trajkovic added, pointing to one example of the flight.

Emigration is most widespread in the four Serb-majority municipalities near the Serbian border, whose inhabitants have largely remained reliant on and loyal to Belgrade after Kosovo's independence in 2008.

Nenad Rasic, the lone Serb member of the Kosovo government, said there was no data.

"Unfortunately, schools hide their number of students, on orders from Belgrade, and lie saying that the numbers are increasing — while we know that they drop drastically."

The growing trend follows a crackdown on an uneasy status quo that saw a Serbian shadow state hold major sway in northern Kosovo.

For months, Kosovar authorities have overseen operations and legal manoeuvres to dismantle the parallel system of social services and political offices backed by Serbia to serve Kosovo's ethnic-Serb minority.

Kosovo so far this year has effectively outlawed the Serbian dinar, closed the banks that relied on the currency and shuttered post offices where pension payments could be cashed.

Kosovo Serbs can no longer drive cars with Serbia plates and must have local drivers licences.

These moves have angered Serbia, but Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti wants to consolidate the writ of the Pristina government following the collapse of EU-backed talks between the two sides last year.

The pressure exerted by Pristina has further strained fragile Serb communities, who rely on jobs and handouts provided by the Serbian state.

Animosity between Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.

Under Kurti, Pristina has adopted its most muscular posture towards Belgrade since 2008.

For Mileva Zivkovic, a 68-year-old retiree in Mitrovica, Serbs who could afford it left long ago, including her son who settled in Serbia.

"Those who don't have the money like me, have to stay here," she added.

"My family hasn't left yet, and I regret that they haven't," said her neighbour Rajka, who only gave her first name.

Because Serbs have boycotted every census since 2008, it is unclear how many are left in Kosovo.

The Serbian government, which likely has the most accurate demographics, has kept silent on the issue.

But an International Crisis Group report published in January said: "Over 10 per cent of Kosovo's Serbs have emigrated over the past year." Their total population has "dipped below 100,000", it added.