Following protests by the Serbian population that hampered traffic, Kosovo closed two of the four border crossings with Serbia overnight from Friday to Saturday, a Kosovo minister announced on Saturday, September 7. The government first closed traffic at Brnjak and then at the largest border crossing point at Merdare in northern Kosovo.
Justifying the decision, Kosovo’s Interior Minister, Xhelal Svecla, said that “masked extremists inside Serbian territory (…) selectively arresting citizens who want to travel through Serbia in a fascist manner”. “And all this in front of the Serbian authorities”he said on Facebook.
Several dozen Serbs had announced the blockade of three border crossings with Kosovo to prevent movement. In the end, two border crossings were blocked, with the demonstrators arguing that they were protesting the closure of the parallel Serb-led administration in Serb-majority northern Kosovo. The blockade will last until Kosovo police are able to clear the border. “Remove from northern Kosovo and the usurped institutions will be returned to the Serbs”said the protesters. They also called for the NATO-led peacekeeping force, KFOR, to “take control of northern Kosovo”.
Residents urged to avoid border crossings
The blockade comes just days after a raid by Kosovo authorities on five municipal offices linked to the Belgrade government in ethnic Serbian areas close to the border. This operation is the latest in a series aimed at dismantling the parallel system of social services and political offices supported by the Serbian government inside Kosovo.
Kosovo’s Foreign Ministry urged residents to avoid transiting border crossings with Serbia due to the blockades. Kosovo Foreign Minister Donika Gërvalla-Schwarz told reporters on Friday that threats to block border crossings were a “Further evidence of Serbia’s provocative and destabilising actions”.
Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia have persisted since war between Serbian forces and Kosovars in the late 1990s declared independence in 2008, a move Serbia refuses to recognise, encouraging Serbs to reject their allegiance to Pristina. New tensions between Serbia and Kosovo had been brewing for months following the introduction earlier this year of a rule making the euro the sole legal tender in Kosovo, effectively banning the use of the Serbian dinar. These measures have angered Belgrade, which continues to fund the health, education and social security systems of Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority.
