The news was confirmed by the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, after a meeting he had yesterday with Serbian residents of northern Kosovo, in the Serbian town of Raska.
Kosovo Serbs, who have been blocking roads in its north for 19 days, agreed to begin lifting barricades in the morning after pressure from the US and the EU to de-escalate tensions.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, after a meeting with Serb residents of northern Kosovo in the Serbian town of Raska, confirmed that the removal of roadblocks will begin in the morning.
“It is a long process, it will take time,” noted Mr. Vucic.
He added that Washington and Brussels, which are mediating the Belgrade and Pristina talks to resolve the outstanding issues, have guaranteed that the Serbs who erected the roadblocks will not face prosecution.
For more than 20 years, Kosovo has been a source of tension between the West, much of which supported its independence, and Russia, which supports Serbia in its bid to block Pristina’s membership in international organizations, including the UN.
The US, NATO and the EU urged the parties to exercise maximum restraint as authorities in Kosovo closed a third border crossing on Wednesday and tensions with the region’s Serbs rose further.
KFOR, the NATO mission in Kosovo, assured that it supports “the dialogue” of the sides to de-escalate the tension, after several days of incidents.
On Monday, Belgrade put the Serbian army on the “highest level of combat readiness”.
The Kremlin denied the accusation of the Ministry of Interior of Kosovo that it seeks to “destabilize” it, while it judged that Belgrade is defending the rights of the Serbs in the region.
The roadblocks in Kosovo were erected by hundreds of Kosovo’s 120,000 Serbs after the arrest of a Serb ex-policeman on December 10, paralyzing traffic. A court decided to release him from prison and put him under house arrest on the recommendation of a prosecutor, causing anger and reactions in Pristina, especially from Prime Minister Albin Kurti: “I am very curious to know which prosecutor made the recommendation and which judge approved it,” he said yesterday Wednesday the head of the government of Kosovo.
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