Kosovo’s government postponed implementation of a decision that would have forced Serbs in the country’s north to apply for car number plates issued by institutions in Pristina after tensions between police and local communities rose.
Late Sunday, protesters parked trucks full of gravel and other heavy machinery on roads leading to two border crossings, Jarinje and Bernjak, in Serb-majority territory. Kosovo police said they had to close the border crossings.
“The general security situation in the municipalities of northern Kosovo is tense,” the NATO mission in Kosovo told KFOR in a statement. The statement said KFOR was “closely monitoring” and “ready to intervene if stability is threatened”.
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova blamed the rise in tension on what she called “baseless discriminatory rules” imposed by Kosovo authorities.
Fourteen years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, 50,000 Serbs living in the north use license plates and documents issued by Serbian authorities, refusing to recognize institutions in the capital, Pristina. Kosovo has been recognized as an independent state by more than 100 countries, but not by Serbia or Russia.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s government had said it would give Serbs a 60-day transition period to get Kosovo license plates, a year after giving up trying to impose them amid similar protests.
The government also decided that as of August 1, all citizens of Serbia visiting Kosovo would have to obtain an additional document at the border to grant them permission to enter. Belgrade authorities apply a similar rule to Kosovars visiting Serbia.
But after tensions on Sunday evening and consultations with EU and US ambassadors, the government said it would delay its plan for a month and start implementing it on September 1.
The head of foreign policy of the European Union, Josep Borrell, has welcomed the delay.
“Expect all obstacles to be removed immediately,” Borrell said in a tweet, adding that outstanding issues should be addressed through EU-facilitated dialogue and focus on comprehensive normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
Earlier on Sunday, police said shots were fired “in the direction of police units but fortunately no one was injured.” He also said that several Albanians were beaten by angry protesters who were passing through the roads that had been blocked, and that some cars had been attacked.
Air raid sirens rang out for more than three hours in the small town of North Mitrovica, inhabited mainly by Serbs.
A year ago, after local Serbs blocked the same roads over license plates, the Kosovo government deployed special police forces and Belgrade flew fighter jets near the border.
Tensions between the two countries remain high and Kosovo’s fragile peace is being maintained by a NATO mission that has 3,770 troops on the ground. Italian peacekeepers were visible in and around Mitrovica on Sunday.
The two countries committed in 2013 to an EU-sponsored dialogue to try to resolve outstanding issues, but little progress has been made.