Kosovo PM: The coming days and weeks may be difficult (Getty)
Download Prime Minister KosovoAlbin Kurti, on Sunday, blamed Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic for the escalation of tension and a possible conflict between the Serbian army and the Kosovo police.
Tensions escalated between Serbia and Kosovo, on Sunday, a day before the entry into force of a law announced by the Kosovo government.
The law requires everyone, including Serbs living in Kosovo, to have a country-issued identity card and to replace license plates from neighboring Serbia with Kosovo-issued plates.
“Our issuance of exit and entry documents (for the country) at the border crossings with Serbia (according to a new law) has not started yet, but the illegal Serbian entities in the north have started setting up roadblocks and shooting,” Kurti said, via social media.
He referred to “the statements and meetings of intimidation and threats in Belgrade (the Serbian capital),” adding: “These aggressive actions that occurred today were planned and instigated.”
Kurti blamed Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the head of the Kosovo and Metojia Affairs Office, Petr Petkovic, for the border tensions. He said Vucic is the “main criminal in the riots” taking place in the country.
He also warned that “the hours of the coming days and weeks may be difficult and problematic,” saying: “We are facing a Serbian national chauvinism that is well known to us.”
Police in Kosovo said they closed two border crossing points in the restive north of the country after local Serbs blocked roads and fired on police in protest against an order to replace Serbian license plates with Kosovo cars within two months.
14 years after Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia About 50,000 Serbs living in the north of the country still use Serbian plates and documents, refusing to recognize institutions affiliated with the capital, Pristina.
More than 100 countries, not including Serbia and Russia, recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
The government in Kosovo has decided that from 1 August also all citizens of Serbia must obtain an additional document at the border to be granted entry.
(Anatolia, Archyde.com)