Travel agreement with identity cards between Kosovo and Serbia started to be implemented.
The AA team visited Yarinye, the border crossing with Serbia in the north of Kosovo, and confirmed that the border crossings are now made only with identity cards and without additional documents, unlike before September 1st.
Heavy vehicles and vehicles now wait at the border for less time than they wait before the agreement enters into force. Previously, there were delays due to filling out forms.
American soldiers serving as part of NATO’s Force in Kosovo (KFOR) and members of the Kosovo Police special unit are on patrol on the way to the Yarinje Border Crossing.
Kosovo Interior Minister Jalal Sveçla, in a statement at 00.00 at night, confirmed that Kosovo-Serbia entries and exits have started to be made only with identity cards at all Kosovo-Serbia borders.
On the other hand, the other of the two decisions that caused tension between Kosovo and Serbia on July 31 and August 1, the decision to “convert the license plates given to Serbs in Kosovo by the Serbian authorities to ‘RKS’ (Republic of Kosovo) license plates” started to be implemented. No agreement has yet been reached between Kosovo and Serbia regarding the decision, which was postponed to September 1 after tensions.
Regarding the issue, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti called on Kosovo Serbs to legalize their illegal license plates in a video message he shared on his social media account in Serbian.
Noting that the process of changing the license plates issued by Serbia to RKS will continue for 61 days in 34 municipal centres, Kurti stated that the citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, who use the plates issued by the Serbian authorities, want to do these procedures for the next two months, and thus they are exempt from taxes and tributes of up to 5 thousand euros.
Noting that there are 401 thousand 945 vehicles with RKS plates in Kosovo, tens of thousands of them belong to minority communities, Kurti said that only about 2 percent of those who will change license plates are.
Kurti noted that these plates are the legacy of former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, and that this legacy is trying to keep Serbian citizens in the past and in isolation.
KOSOVO-SERBIA TENSION
At the end of July, the government of Kosovo, in line with the principle of reciprocity, “issuing temporary declaration forms to those entering/exiting Kosovo with Serbian identity cards” and “converting license plates issued by Serbian authorities to Serbs in Kosovo to ‘RKS’ (Republic of Kosovo) plates. He announced that the relevant decisions will come into force.
Serbs in Kosovo, reacting to this, closed the border crossings in the north of the country and tensions increased in the country. The Kosovo government later decided to postpone the crisis-causing implementation until 1 September, provided that all the barricades placed on the roads leading to the border crossings with Serbia are removed.
NATO’s Force in Kosovo (KFOR) has declared that it is ready to intervene in case of destabilization in the region. For the solution of the problem, negotiations were held between the parties within the scope of the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue facilitated by the EU. (AA)