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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

WHO must resolve problems in supplying medicines to Kosovo-Metohija

Belgrade, 12 March 2008

Serbian Minister of Health Tomica Milosavljevic said that he expects the World Health Organization (WHO) to help in solving problems in the transportation of medicines and sanitary material to health establishments in central Kosovo.

In a statement to the news agency Beta, Milosavljevic said that the Health Ministry, through the WHO offices in Belgrade and Pristina, has initiated a procedure whereby WHO could help in solving the problem of the confiscated medicines shipment, which was intended for health establishments in central Kosovo.

We insist that WHO provides help to the Serbian Health Ministry and Serbian authorities in order to ensure that health establishments continue to function normally in Kosovo, above all because of sensitive population groups, stressed Milosavljevic. He added that WHO is supposed to help the national health institutions in resolving such problems.

He said that he expects WHO will get in touch with UNMIK representatives today, if they haven’t already done so, and try to resolve the problem which arose when a shipment of medicines was held at a customs check point in the southern part of Kosovo-Metohija.

The Minister stressed that this is one of the ways to solve the problem and it is expected that efforts by the Serbian Ministry for Kosovo-Metohija will also produce results.

The matter of transporting medicines could have become subject to dispute at any point in time, but fortunately that did not happen until now, said Milosavljevic. He added that supplying medicines to health establishments in the province has been a serious problem for years.

He recalled that on March 3 the police confiscated two trucks carrying medicines, sanitary material and equipment which are currently being held at the customs check point in the southern part of Kosovska Mitrovica. The supplies were intended for a health centre and a hospital in Gracanica.

The supply has been jeopardised but this does not mean that hospitals will not work tomorrow, said Milosavljevic. He added that regardless of the newly arisen situation, normal functioning of health establishments in Kosovo first of all requires the appropriate supply of medicines so that they are not hindered in their work because of this or other similar problems.