PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, May 31 (Reuters) - The United Nations has approved separate postal codes for Kosovo in a further move that Serbia says is tilting the scales in favour of independence for the ethnic Albanian majority.
Run by the U.N. since NATO forced Serb troops out six years ago, the province already has its own vehicle license plates and customs service. It is awaiting its own international telephone code and is demanding a Kosovo banking code as well.
Rafet Jashari, director of the Kosovo postal company, told a news conference the U.N. mission's legal office had approved Kosovo's membership of the Universal Postal Union, the Bern-based body that regulates international mail exchange between some 190 member countries.
Since the 1998-99 war, Kosovo post has been routed through Switzerland or Albania, often with long delays.
"By getting this code, everything will be sent and returned directly through Kosovo," he said. "It will increase speed and security ... and help economic development."
The U.N. mission has also applied for an international telephone code for Kosovo, and the province's Albanian-dominated institutions are pressing for the formal establishment of a central bank and independent SWIFT code for money transfers.
Serbia's pointman for Kosovo, Nebojsa Covic, complained to the U.N. Security Council last week that such initiatives "create an impression that, internationally, Kosovo ... is a completely separate entity".
Randjel Nojkic, a Kosovo Serb politician and Serbian postal and telecommunications official, told the Beta agency on Tuesday that Serb enclaves in Kosovo would ignore the new Kosovo code and continue to use their Serbian postal codes.
Until its "final status" is decided in U.N. mediated negotiations, possibly by the end of this year, the province of 2 million people formally remains part of Serbia and Montenegro.
Neither side talks about partition but in practice Kosovo is already divided. Most of the 90,000 Serbs who remained after the war continue to use the Serbian dinar, instead of the U.N.-imposed euro. They use schools and clinics that answer to Belgrade in what the U.N. calls an "illegal" parallel system.
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Of course there is no real need for own postal codes. Kosovo's Albanian politicians just want to score cheap nationalistic points with their voters. The effect is that the Serbs try to score similar points and the solution for Kosovo is again further away.
It also proves how the UN people behave like flags in the wind. If they had any vision about how Kosovo should develop they would never have approved this. But they are only busy keeping the Albanians quiet and saving their own jobs.
At the moment the Serbs totally distrust the Albanians. The expect that their remaining monuments will be destroyed and that the remaining Serbs will slowly be driven out once Kosovo becomes independent.
So Kosovo's Albanian politicians need to convince the Serbs that they are trustworthy honest people. From that point of view this is definitely a step in the wrong direction.
Now our post will not go through Serbia, which I might add blocks mail being delivered if the address is written with Kosova in it (on a few occasions not always of course).
So to avoid being hostage to Serbia, we need postal codes, phone codes, and thus independence. Is this Europe we're building or a prison? Free Europe, with Free People.
Yet another step closer to independence of Kosova! There is nothing wrong for treating Kosovar albanians equal as other European countries!
Ardi from Gjilan
Yet another step closer to independence of Kosova! There is nothing wrong for treating Kosovar albanians equal as other European citizens!
Ardi from Gjilan
Yet another step closer to independence of Kosova! There is nothing wrong for treating Kosovar albanians equal as other European citizens!
Ardi from Gjilan
No need to convince anyone that he/she is honest. Those who were honest are staying in Kosova. Their conscience is clean and like the Albanian Kosovars deal with everyday problems. Those who were involved in crimes were the first to live. They knew they had to pay for their involvment in crimes. Who wants to forgive the people that killed you family??? Of course there are always a few exceptions.
One can't explain it to people here how much of a hindrance it was to route mail through Belgrade. Basically everything kinda interesting would not be shipped down, even cell phone face plate for Pete's sake were stolen.
I know two people who lost scholarship opportunities in the US because mail didn't make it at all to Kosova. I'm not sure you can take Belgrade to international court over this but it certainly did a lot of damage to the lives of Kosovars.
P.S. I didn't check but I suspect DHL stock went down today.
I know this sounds childish but you can't explain it to people here how much of a hindrance it was to route mail through Belgrade. Basically everything kinda interesting would not be shipped down, even cell phone face plate for Pete's sake were stolen.
I know two people who lost scholarship opportunities in the US because mail didn't make it at all to Kosova. I'm not sure you can take Belgrade to international court over this but it certainly did a lot of damage to the lives of Kosovars.
P.S. I didn't check but I suspect DHL stock went down today.
lol DHL stock! Its true though, they were routing mail through Shkupi (Skopje/Macedonia), smart move.
Serbs always use to say "Posteni Albanci" which my English speaking freinds means, "honest Albanians", which fortunately (and unfortunately in times of war) is true. Who better to fight against than someone who can't make up a damn lie.
Monuments keep coming back to this news site :( here is what I have to say, I want my orthodox church back, as an Albanian and as a Kosovar, cause its !MY! cultural heritage, and that of my !PEOPLE!.
Of course that a postal code is needed in Kosova as we are moving each day close to independence.Obviously, every single state operates with its own postal code.I am sorry for all those serbs who think that they will be using codes of serbia even further.Diplomaticaly, this is another important step toward an independent state.
The information you provided about Kosovo's postal code is really very important. And people are curious to know such valuable information.
Thank you so much for this information
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Availability of the information is wide spread on internet such that many people get some thing
out of this. Awesome work .
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