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Tensions in northern Kosovo as new border barricades come up
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 08 - 09 - 2011


New roadblocks were erected in northern Kosovo
early Thursday, amid growing tensions and signals that Pristina was
preparing to assert its authority over the Serb-dominated enclave, according to dpa.
Serbian national television RTS reported that several trucks and
tractors were parked on the road between Kosovska Mitrovica and
Zvecan, blocking traffic.
Another roadblock appeared in the largest Serb enclave in mainly
Albanian Kosovo, on a main road in the northern village of Rudare,
B92 news reported online.
The barricades came up hours after Kosovo's prime minister, Hashim
Thaci, said his government would appoint customs officials at
contested border crossings in the Serb enclave on September 16.
That is when a European Union-facilitated agreement between Serbia
and Kosovo on customs comes into effect, aimed at ending a trade row
and opening up the borders to goods from both sides.
Tensions were heightened in July, when Kosovo sent police to take
control over Jarinje and Brnjak, the two border checkpoints, to
enforce a trade ban in response to an effective embargo by Serbia.
Serb crowds blocked the main roads in the north and demolished the
Jarinje checkpoint. One Kosovo policeman was killed.
NATO peacekeepers in Kosovo, KFOR, took control of Jarinje and
Brnjak, but in line with the agreements between Belgrade and
Pristina, KFOR was due to pull out from the checkpoints on September
15.
Despite pressure from Belgrade and the international community,
Kosovan Serbs rejected the agreement and promised to resist its
implementation.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia
refuses to acknowledge it. It has also remained unable to assert any
authority over the Serb-dominated north.
The EU has demanded that Serbian President Boris Tadic sever
political and financial support to the Serb resistance to Pristina's
rule in northern Kosovo.
Following that demand, voiced by German Chancellor Angela Merkel
in Belgrade in late August, Thaci said his government would finally
assert control over the north.
Serbia's chief negotiator with Kosovo, Borislav Stefanovic, warned
Wednesday that Thaci's promise of a move in the north is "unilateral
action that can further destabilize" the already volatile area.


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