Amid the escalating conflict between Serbia and Kosovo, a solution to the road blockades is emerging. President Aleksandar Vucic announced that the Serbs would start dismantling the barricades on Thursday morning.
Amid the escalating conflict in the Balkans between Serbia and Kosovo, the Serbs on Thursday cleared the 19-day roadblock.
Kosovo police confirmed that the border crossing had reopened. The government in Pristina closed it on Wednesday in response to the erection of more barricades on the Serbian side.
Blockade heightened tensions
After calls by the EU and the USA for de-escalation, Serbia’s head of state Aleksandar Vucic (52) had previously announced that the road barricades at the border would be dismantled. “The barricades are being removed, but mistrust remains,” said Vucic, according to the state broadcaster RTS, on Wednesday evening at a meeting with representatives of the Serb minority in Kosovo near the border. The border barricades that have been in place for three weeks have significantly increased tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.
Kosovo, a country of 1.8 million people with a majority Albanian population, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade still regards it as a breakaway southern Serbian territory. Belgrade is encouraging the approximately 120,000 members of the Serb minority in northern Kosovo in their attempts to defy the authority of the government in Pristina.
According to a journalist from the AFP news agency, the situation in northern Kosovo was calm on Thursday morning. Patrols of the NATO-led peacekeeping forces (KFOR) and the EU mission Eulex could be seen. According to an AFP reporter, two trucks used as a roadblock on a bridge in the hotspot town of Mitrovica burned down overnight. The cause of the fire was not known.
Traffic paralyzed at border
The dozen or so protesters who were still at the blockade in nearby Rudare expressed dissatisfaction with the decision to remove the roadblocks. “It doesn’t make sense, we fought for rights that weren’t met, we feel betrayed, abused,” said a 25-year-old, who declined to give his name.
The order by a court in Pristina on Wednesday to release a former Serbian police officer from prison and place him under house arrest instead calmed the situation. The arrest of the ex-policeman was considered the reason for the erection of roadblocks by hundreds of Kosovo Serbs since December 10th.
Since then, they had paralyzed traffic near two border crossings. Kosovan security forces and soldiers from the KFOR mission have been attacked several times, some with firearms. On the one hand, Serbia is an official candidate for EU membership, but on the other hand it is considered to be Russia’s closest ally in the Western Balkans. Belgrade has condemned the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. But it refuses to join the Western sanctions against Moscow. (AFP/chs/kes)