Peacekeepers prepare for Kosovo-Serbia border demo

(18 Dec 2022)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jarinje crossing - 18 December 2022
1. Jarinje crossing border
2. Various of barbed wire at Jarinje crossing with "stop" sign and members of KFOR (NATO peace keeping force)
3. Various of Jarinje crossing
4. Various Serbian police

STORYLINE:
Members of KFOR (NATO peace keeping force) on Sunday set up a barbed wire blockade at the Jarinje crossing ahead of a planned protest in support of Serb minorities in Kosova and Metohija.

Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo increased 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.

Jarinje and Brnjak crossings were also closed for traffic and pedestrians.

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 Serbia's bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatist and civilians, and ordered 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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