RUDARE, Kosovo, Dec 29 (Portal) – Serbs began dismantling barricades in northern Kosovo on Thursday, hours after Kosovo reopened its main border crossing with Serbia, sparking a spike in tensions that have alarmed world powers Has.
Serbia also ended a three-day-old state of alert for its troops, Tanjug news agency reported, as the sides showed signs of bowing to pressure from the European Union and the United States to retreat from a mounting confrontation.
“Diplomacy has prevailed in de-escalating tensions in northern Kosovo. Violence can never be a solution,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted.
“Urgent progress in dialogue” is still needed to resolve outstanding issues between Belgrade and Pristina, he added.
Around 50,000 Serbs living in northern Kosovo refuse to recognize the government in Pristina or Kosovo’s status as a separate state. You have the support of many Serbs in Serbia and its government.
The latest climax in the longstanding confrontation came when Serbs in northern Kosovo began setting up roadblocks on December 10 to protest the arrest of a former Serb police officer.
They agreed to begin dismantling the barricades after the former police officer was transferred from custody to house arrest on Wednesday.
Protesters began removing trucks from a barricade in the northern village of Rudare on Thursday afternoon, drone footage obtained by Portal showed. Serbian media said two more barricades had been removed near Lake Gazivode in northern Kosovo.
BURNT OUT TRUCK
[1/5] Members of the press gather as local Serbs prepare to remove barricades at a roadblock in Rudare, near the northern part of the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica, Kosovo December 29, 2022. Portal/Florion Goga
Kosovar police said they have reopened the Merdare crossing – the main one for road freight, connecting the landlocked country with western European countries – after roadblocks fell on the Serbian side of the border.
They called on people from the diaspora to use the crossing, which closed at midnight on Tuesday, to travel home for the holidays.
But tensions remained high. Two burned-out trucks were parked on a bridge near the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo. Kosovo police said they were investigating an arson attack.
Two other border crossings with Serbia in northern Kosovo have been closed since December 10.
Albanian-majority Kosovo, with Western backing, declared independence after a 1998-99 war in which NATO intervened to protect ethnic Albanian citizens.
NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, said it welcomed the removal of the barricades.
“All parties should avoid any rhetoric or actions that may lead to further escalation,” she added in a statement.
Kosovo has long been a source of tension between the West, which supports its independence, and Russia, which supports Serbia in its efforts to block Kosovo’s membership of global organizations, including the United Nations.
The Kremlin on Wednesday dismissed accusations by Kosovo’s interior minister that Russia was influencing Serbia to destabilize Kosovo, saying Serbia was defending the rights of ethnic Serbs.
Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Edited by Andrew Heavens
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