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Serbia and Kosovo are at odds again. The trigger is that Kosovo, at the request of the US, will ban entry to any vehicle with a Serbian license plate. Photos/REUTERS
On Sunday evening, protesters parked trucks laden with gravel and other heavy equipment on roads leading to two border crossings, Jarinje and Bernjak, in the Serbian-majority region.
Kosovo police said they had to close the border crossing.
“The overall security situation in the autonomous cities of northern Kosovo is tense,” the NATO-led mission to Kosovo, KFOR, said in a statement. Reuters, Monday (1/8/2022).
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Fourteen years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, some 50,000 Serbs living in the north using license plates and letters issued by the Serbian government, refuse to recognize the organization in the Kosovo capital; Pristina.
Kosovo has been recognized by more than 100 countries in the world as an independent country but not by Serbia or Russia.
The government of Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said it would give Serbia a 60-day transition period to get Kosovo’s license plates, a year after giving up trying to force them due to similar protests.
The government also decided that from August 1, all Serbian nationals visiting Kosovo must obtain additional documents at the border to allow them to enter.
The Belgrade government also applies a similar rule to Kosovar citizens visiting Serbia.
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