Kosovo’s primary border crossing with Serbia was back open and ethnic Serbs started to remove barricades in the volatile north yesterday, dialling down growing tensions that had drawn international calls for de-escalation.
Barricades were first dismantled on the Serbian side of the Merdare border point and Kosovo announced the crossing was open a day after Washington and Brussels urged both to ease a simmering crisis.
Later yesterday, Kosovo Serbs started removing the largest barricade in Rudare, near the flashpoint Kosovo town of Mitrovica, taking away some of the roughly dozen trucks blocking the road, according to an AFP correspondent.
The removal of roadblocks started at other sites too and it was expected that would be completed late yesterday, the Serbian state-run RTS television reported.
The latest trouble erupted on December 10, when ethnic Serbs put up barricades to protest the arrest of an ex-policeman suspected of being involved in attacks against ethnic Albanian police officers — effectively sealing off traffic on two border crossings.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo police announced the easing of the border standoff after the EU and the United States urged immediate de-escalation and said they were working with both sides.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, after a bitter war in late 1990s. But Belgrade still refuses to recognise it and encourages Kosovo’s 120,000 ethnic Serbs to defy Pristina’s authority — especially in the north where they make up the majority.
After the roadblocks were erected, Kosovar police and international peacekeepers were attacked in several shooting incidents, while the Serbian armed forces were put on heightened alert this week. Yesterday, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell hailed removal of barricades, saying “diplomacy prevailed in de-escalating tensions in north Kosovo.”
“Violence can never be a solution,” he tweeted, and stressed the need for “urgent progress” in the EU-facilitated dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti noted it was “even better that this will be done without the intervention of our police.”
Political analyst Aleksandar Popov said tensions in Kosovo are so high that it would “only take one stray bullet” to significantly aggravate the situation.