Serbs refuse to dismantle roadblocks in Kosovo as Nato stand-off continues

SERBS IN northern Kosovo have dug in their heels in a dispute with Nato, rejecting its demands to remove roadblocks and asking Belgrade to send armed forces to the region, where tension is high following recent violence.

Local Serb leaders offered yesterday to allow Nato vehicles to resupply members of its Kfor peacekeeping force on the border between Kosovo and Serbia, but refused to dismantle the barricades.

Serbs fear Kfor and the EU police mission in Kosovo will help the country’s authorities take permanent control of crossing points and customs posts on the disputed frontier. The area became a flash-point when the government representing Kosovo’s 90 per cent ethnic-Albanian majority sent police to man customs checkpoints three months ago.

One policeman was killed in clashes with armed Serbs in July, and last month several Serbs and Kfor troops were injured when peacekeepers tried to demolish barricades and close back-roads that Serbs now use to bypass official customs posts.

Both sides blamed each other for the fighting, which strained relations between Kfor and local Serbs, who refuse to accept Kosovo’s independence and oppose the presence of ethnic-Albanian police on a frontier they do not recognise.

The government in Pristina holds no sway in Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, which still looks to Belgrade for leadership and finance. However, Serbia’s pro-western government is under pressure from the EU to come to a settlement with Kosovo, so that both can move towards membership of the bloc.

Officials in Belgrade have called for a peaceful resolution to the stand-off.

“Serbia and the UN Security Council should facilitate the return of parts of the army and police and their deployment in Kosovo’s north,” local Serb leaders said in a declaration after yesterday’s meeting. They also sharply criticised Belgrade for entering EU-brokered talks with Kosovo’s government.

The request for help from Serbia’s security services is likely to infuriate Kosovo’s government, three years after it declared independence.

A Nato bombing campaign forced Serb troops from Kosovo in 1999, following two years of fighting with separatist rebels. Some 10,000 ethnic-Albanian civilians were killed in the war and about 850,000 people were displaced.

Officials from Kfor have seen Serbs ignore several deadlines for removing the roadblocks, and have warned that Nato’s patience was running out.

“Kfor wants to resolve this by violence and it will be responsible for new developments,” said local Serb official Radenko Nedeljkovic.