Tensions rise in northern Kosovo as local Serbs block roads, Serbia puts army on alert

MITROVICA, Kosovo - Protesting Serbs in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo erected new 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.

Serbia’s Defence Ministry said in a statement late on Monday that in response to the latest events in the region and its belief that Kosovo was preparing to attack Serbs and forcefully remove the barricades, President Aleksandar Vucic had ordered Serbia’s army and police to be put on the highest alert.

“There is no reason to panic, but there is reason to be concerned,” Serbia’s Defence Minister Milos Vucevic told RTS television late on Monday.

Kosovan Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla on Tuesday said Serbia, under the influence of Russia, was aiming to destabilise Kosovo by supporting the Serb minority in the north.

“It is precisely Serbia, influenced by Russia, that has raised a state of military readiness and that is ordering the erection of new barricades, in order to justify and protect the criminal groups that terrorize... citizens of Serb ethnicity living in Kosovo,” Mr Svecla said in a statement.

Since Dec 10, Serbs in northern Kosovo

have erected multiple roadblocks in and around Mitrovica

and exchanged fire with police after the arrest of a former Serb policeman for allegedly assaulting serving police officers during a previous protest.

“Kosovo cannot engage in dialogue with criminal gangs, and freedom of movement should be restored. There should not be barricades on any road,” the Kosovan government said in a statement on Monday.

It added that the police had the capacity and readiness to act, but were waiting for Nato’s KFOR Kosovo peacekeeping force, which maintains a neutral role, to respond to their request to remove the barricades.

KFOR said in a statement: “We urge all sides to help enable security and freedom of movement in Kosovo, and prevent misleading narratives from affecting the dialogue process.”

In Mitrovica on Tuesday morning, trucks were parked to block the road linking the Serb-majority part of the town with the Albanian-majority part.

The local Serbs are demanding the release of the arrested officer and have other demands before they will remove the barricades.

Ethnic Serb mayors in northern municipalities, along with local judges and some 600 police officers, resigned last month in protest over a Kosovan government decision to replace Serbian-issued car licence plates with ones issued by Pristina.

Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the West, following a 1998-1999 war in which Nato intervened to protect ethnic Albanian citizens.

Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations and five EU states – Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus - refuse to recognise Kosovo’s statehood.

Russia, Serbia’s historical ally, is blocking Kosovo’s membership in the United Nations.

Around 50,000 Serbs live in the northern part of Kosovo and refuse to recognise the Pristina government or the state. They see Belgrade as their capital. REUTERS