Protesting Serbs in northern Kosovo erected a number of new street barricades on Tuesday, hours after Serbia said it had put its army on the highest combat alert following weeks of escalating tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.
Key points:
- Ethnic Serbs in Kosovo are protesting the arrest of a former Kosovo Serb policeman by erecting barricades in the street
- Serbia has placed its troops near the Kosovo border on a high level of combat readiness
- NATO has called for the de-escalation of tensions between the two sides
The new barriers, made of heavily laden trucks, were put up overnight in Mitrovica, a northern Kosovo town divided between Kosovo Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
It is the first time since the recent crisis started that Serbs have blocked streets in one of the main towns. Until now, barricades had mainly been set on roads leading to the Kosovo-Serbia border.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he ordered the army’s highest state of alert to “protect our people (in Kosovo) and preserve Serbia”.
He claimed Pristina, Kosovo’s capital, was preparing to “attack” Kosovo Serbs in the country’s north and remove the roadblocks Serbs had started putting up 18 days ago to protest the arrest of a former Kosovo Serb policeman.
Petar Petkovic, a Serbian government official in charge of contacts with Kosovo Serbs, told Serbian state television station RTS that Serbian troops had been placed on combat readiness because Kosovo had done the same thing.
Kosovo has asked NATO-led peacekeepers — who have been stationed in the country since the 1999 war ended — to remove the barricades, and hinted Pristina’s forces would do so if the NATO-led Kosovo force (KFOR) didn’t react.
Any Serbian armed intervention in Kosovo would likely result in a clash with NATO forces, and would mean a major escalation of tensions in the Balkans, which are still reeling from the bloody break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, have reached their peak over the past month.
Western attempts to reach a negotiated settlement have failed, with Serbia refusing to recognise Kosovo’s statehood.
KFOR and the European Union have urged both countries to show restraint and avoid provocations.
Kosovo remains a potential flashpoint in the Balkans, years after the 1998-99 Kosovo War, which ended with a NATO intervention pushing Serbian troops out of the former Serbian province.
AP/Reuters