Tension at the Kosovo-Serbia border: the reasons for an escalation
Polish soldiers, part of the Kosovo peacekeeping mission, KFOR, pass through barricades near the Kosovo-Serbian border post in Jarinje, Kosovo, September 28, 2021. REUTERS - LAURA HASANI
Text by: Laurent Geslin Follow
5 mins
Serbia is playing a show of force in the conflict that has again pitted it against Kosovo for a week.
The European Union and the United States are calling for “de-escalation”.
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From our correspondent in Belgrade,
"
The armored vehicles are marching on Kosovo
", "
the air force flies over the border
". According to the headlines of the Serbian press, the country is again at war. A high point was reached on Sunday, when Serbian Defense Minister Aleksandar Vulin came to review the troops accompanied by Russian Ambassador to Belgrade Aleksandr Botsan-Kharchenko.
Belgrade has concentrated significant military assets on the outskirts of the Jarinje and Brnjak posts that link Serbia to the predominantly Serbian area of northern Kosovo, but these are unlikely to cross the red line.
In recent days, replacing the Kosovo police, it is indeed the men of KFOR, the NATO mission in Kosovo, who have been controlling the border.
However, access to the latter is also blocked from Kosovo, by barricades erected since September 20 by Serbian civilians.
At the origin of the crisis, the number plates
It was in effect Monday, September 20 that the new crisis began, when the government of Kosovo decided to
prohibit the access of the country to vehicles
carrying a Serbian license plate from Kosovo. In the north of the country, many vehicles still have a “KM” registration - for Kosovska Mitrovica, the Serbian name for the town of Mitrovica. These plaques are accepted by Belgrade, which does not recognize the independence of Kosovo, unilaterally proclaimed in February 2008, and still maintains a "
parallel
"
municipal administration
.
Since the
various
“technical”
agreements
to normalize relations between the two countries, signed over the past decade, a relative pragmatism had in fact imposed itself: many Kosovo Serbs had two license plates, one Kosovar and one. Serbian, which required them to pay twice for the registration of their vehicle, but allowed them to circulate freely in the two countries ... Belgrade, for its part, only recognizes certain types of Kosovo license plates: those that bear the letters KS (for "Kosovo"), but not those marked RKS (for "Republic of Kosovo").
Concerned about a strict "reciprocity" between the two countries, the Kosovar Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, has decided that vehicles bearing a Kosovo Serbian registration will be blocked at the border until this problem is resolved.
To enter the country, these vehicles must now take a provisional Kosovar registration, at the price of five euros.
It was this decision that set fire to the powder: as soon as it became effective, on the morning of September 20, Serbs from northern Kosovo “spontaneously” blocked the borders and erected barricades.
The habit of barricades
The northern sector of Kosovo, where just over 30,000 people live over 1,800 km2, is used to barricades: the area remained virtually cut off from the world for more than a year, in 2011-2012, when the borders had been cut off. already blocked in opposing the deployment of customs and police officers in Pristina. The checkpoints which cut off the main roads, at Leposavić, Zubin Potok and on the national road which bypasses the big city of Mitrovica, had become real works of art, while communications with Serbia passed through "parallel roads", across the mountain.
This year, many testimonies reveal a very low enthusiasm.
On condition of anonymity, officials employed in Serbian administrations in northern Kosovo explain that they are required to visit the barricades during their working hours.
Another funny detail: several cafes and restaurants have been ordered to draw their curtains, so as not to “deflect” the demonstrators.
Still on condition of anonymity, the owners of these establishments confirm that the order comes from the Lista Srpska, the Serbian List, the locally hegemonic party, which collects nearly 100% of the votes in each election and which carries out the decisions very faithfully. instructions from Belgrade.
The feeling of a flashback
It is thus the advances of the last decade that are called into question. Milica Andrić Rakić, an official of a local NGO in Mitrovica, the New Social Initiative, explains that she feels like “going back
six or seven years, when most of the cars driving in the north did not have license plates. 'registration at all
'. While EU and NATO representatives insistently call for "
de-escalation
", the risks of the conflict getting out of hand seem limited. "
The crisis has
grown from scratch, of
course there will be no war
", explains Srdjan Cvijic, of the Open Society Foundation, "
but it will be even more difficult to restore trust between ordinary citizens of Kosovo, Albanians and Serbs
”.
While the "
dialogue
" between Belgrade and Pristina has broken down for several years, Albin Kurti wanted to try a standoff, by insisting on the logic of "
reciprocity
", Belgrade reacted by playing a show of force.
However, the two governments will have to find the path to dialogue again, even if the barricades may continue to block roads and borders for a long time to come.
It will not be the first time in this northern sector of Kosovo.
►
See also: Balkans: Serbian troops placed on alert at the border with Kosovo
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