Скачать или смотреть Serb protesters break police cordon at Kosovo border

(18 Dec 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jarinje crossing, Serbia - 18 December 2022
1. Protesters arriving at the Serbian side of the Jarinje crossing
2. Protesters waving Serbian flags
3. Protesters in front of police line
4. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Svetlana Bojovic, protester:
”The reason I am here is my existence, my origin, my support for Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. As for all Serbs that are aware of their identity. Our identity is Kosovo Polje. Everything is known (what happened) since the battle of Kosovo. Second, we are here, they are there. (Our) Territory is here, sacred Serbian land and God.”
5. Protesters talking to police
6. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Hadzi Andrej Milic, protester:
”Today we came to send the message that we will fight for Kosovo and Metohija, and to me this is the beginning of the third Serbian uprising.”
7. Woman praying in front of the police line
8. Various of protesters with flares and flags in front of police line
9. Mid of sign set alight reading (Serbian) “Brussels agreement”
10. Pan of protesters breaking police line, running towards Jarinje crossing
11. Various of police line in front of protesters
12. Wide of KFOR (NATO-led international peacekeeping force) personnel and vehicles at the crossing

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jarinje crossing, Kosovo - 18 December 2022
13. Various of KFOR vehicles positioned behind barbed wire
14. Military personnel exiting vehicle with US flag on its side
15. Various of KFOR personnel setting up barbed wire
16. Various wides of KFOR personnel and vehicles on the road
17. Wide of crossing
STORYLINE:
Serbian protesters gathered on the Serb side of a crossing between their country and Kosovo on Sunday to show their support for Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija.

Earlier Sunday, members of of a NATO-led peace keeping force (KFOR) set up barbed wire across the road near the crossing on the Kosovo side.

Scuffles broke out between the protestors and police as people broke through the police line and ran towards the crossing point.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared anew during the past week after Serbs erected barricades on the main roads in the north of the former Serbian province to protest the arrest of a former Kosovo Serb police officer.

Serbia on Thursday formally demanded that its security forces return to the breakaway former province of Kosovo, despite warnings from the West that such calls are unlikely to be accepted and only add to tensions in that part of the Balkans.


Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told state RTS television that the government  asked the commander of NATO-led peacekeepers stationed in Kosovo since 1999 when the Western alliance pushed out Serb troops from the region, to allow the return of up to 1,000 Serbian army and police officers to the Serb-populated north of the country.


Serbian officials claim a U.N. resolution that formally ended the Kosovo war  allows for Serbian troops to return to Kosovo.

NATO bombed Serbia to stop the war, end its bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatist and civilians and order its troops out of Kosovo.


Serbian officials claim that the NATO and European Union-led peacekeeping missions are unable to protect the minority Serbs in Kosovo from harassment by majority Kosovo Albanians and that their security forces can do the job.  


The return of Serbian troops is unlikely to be granted because it would de-facto mean handing over security of Kosovo’s Serb-populated northern regions to Serbian forces — a move that would dramatically increase tensions in the Balkans.





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