PRISTINA (Reuters) – Envoys from the European Union and the United States have called on Kosovo and Serbia to remain calm and not fuel an ongoing ethnic crisis in Kosovo’s north where local Serbs have erected barricades to prevent police movement.
Serb protesters in northern Kosovo have blocked main roads and exchanged fire with police after the arrest of a former Serb policeman for allegedly attacking Kosovo institutions and officials during rising tensions between authorities and Kosovo’s Serb minority.
Some 50,000 Serbs who live in north part of Kosovo refuse to recognise Pristina’s authority and wants to join Serbia.
Tuesday marked the fourth day of blockades and protesters have shown no sign they will remove trucks filled with gravel and other heavy machinery from main streets.
After meeting Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti, the U.S. envoy for the Balkans Gabriel Escobar said he asked “everyone to remain calm,” citing the need for continued dialogue.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but Belgrade refuses to recognise its statehood.
However, the EU is mediating talks to normalise relations and Brussels has already put a plan forward.
“I don’t think we can afford (to) just wait for something bad to happen,” said EU’s envoy for Pristina-Belgrade dialog Miroslav Lajcak after meeting Kurti together with Escobar.
“For me, (a) much better way of removing the barricades is as a result of political agreement rather than by bulldozers,” Lajcak said.
On Tuesday NATO soldiers and EU police officers in armoured vehicles patrolled close to the roadblock in the village of Rudare close to town of Mitrovica, while on other side of the barricade local Serbs burnt wood to keep warm as temperatures hit below zero with sporadic snow.
(Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Josie Kao)
