The Serbian minority in Kosovo, which has been blocking roads for nearly three weeks, will lift its barricades, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced on Thursday, December 29, after a call for de-escalation launched by Washington and Brussels.
” The barricades will be dismantled, but mistrust remains said President Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday evening December 28 during a meeting with representatives of Kosovo Serbs near the Kosovo border, according to comments quoted by Serbian state television RTSM.
Kosovo on Wednesday closed its main border crossing with Serbia after the Serbs erected barricades there, in one of the worst fits in recent years in this region. Indeed, several hundred Kosovo Serbs had erected roadblocks in northern Kosovo since December 10 to protest against the arrest of a former policeman Serb, paralyzing traffic to two border crossings with Serbia.
A court in Pristina, capital of Albania, ordered, this Wednesday, December 27, the release of the ex-policeman, Dejan Pantic, and his placement under house arrest.
Call for a ” unconditional de-escalation »
The United States and the European Union jointly called on Wednesday for a ” unconditional de-escalation ” in this region, where the Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic judged last week that the situation was ” on the brink of armed conflict “.
” We work with the president [serbe] Vucic and the Prime Minister [du Kosovo] Kurti to find a political solution in order to ease tensions and achieve a breakthrough in the interest of stability, security and the well-being of all local populations “, they assured in a press release.
Germany denounced this Wednesday the reinforcement of the Serbian military presence on the border with Kosovo, which according to Berlin, sends a ” very bad signal “. For its part, Russia reaffirmed its support for Belgrade.
Kosovo, a former Serbian province and mainly populated by Albanians (120,000 Serbs for 1.8 million inhabitants), declared its independence in 2008, but Serbia refuses to recognize its independence.
(With AFP)