Stickers to prevent the 'license plate war' between Serbia and Kosovo

• Kosovo Analysis: The keys to the license plate war

"Calm down"

.

This is what the policeman at the Jarinje border crossing in the north answers when the interpreter transfers our question about how the situation is 12 hours after the entry into force of the measure imposed by the Government of Kosovo to prevent the entry of no vehicle with Serbian license plate.

At the small border crossing for Kosovars and administrative for Serbs, drivers from Serbia have to get out of their vehicles to cover with stickers any identification that contains the letters SRB (Serbia) on the registration plate if they want to access territory kosovar including the coat of arms.

The police deployed on the border of Kosovo offer more information about it but the agent agrees and confirms that there have been no problems so far.

A month ago the situation exploded when Pristina decided to impose the measures that prohibit the use of Serbian identity documents to all people who intended to cross the border.

The measure also contemplated a ban on the use of Serbian vehicle plates issued by Belgrade.

These measures raised the spirits in the Serbian part of the north and in cities like Mitrovica there were riots and clashes and even shots were fired at the Kosovar police.

They also erected barricades that blocked the borders that caused the collapse forcing the Kosovar government to close them.

KFOR, the NATO mission that maintains security in the area, warned that it was closely monitoring and would

for the fulfillment of the United Nations mandate that protects the free movement of all people from Kosovo, the Atlantic organization said in a statement

Today, the first of September, at the border crossings that both countries share facilities, separated by just two meters, the cabin where the Kosovar police officer who controls the entry documents works, almost touches the one occupied by the Serbian agent who does the same task in leaving Serbia.

In the previous days, in the vicinity of the

, the Serbian police also reinforced their presence, showing that security was a priority issue in that area.

Kosovar trucks enter the Serbian side to transport goods from Serbia.

Two grandees were about to enter to bring cattle from the nearby town of Novi Pasar.

"The meat there is of better quality" assures us one of the drivers of Albanian origin.

Serbian and Kosovo television crews are broadcasting live in news bulletins what is the situation on the ground since the eve of September 1.

The Jarinje crossing is in the Serb-dominated area of ​​northern Kosovo, which is heavily guarded by KFOR troops.

On the way from Mitrovica, a city divided by a bridge guarded by the Italian carabinieri, to the border crossing, we ran into several military patrols of different NATO member nationalities equipped with armored vehicles controlling both directions of the road.

American soldiers calmly contemplate the passage of vehicles, greeting the drivers politely.

They are uniformed but do not carry weapons, they are kept inside the vehicles.

The US military monitors the situation and is tasked with informing its units if an

arises .

The road that takes us back to Pristina borders the Ibar river where we also meet Polish soldiers and almost leaving the Serbian zone a checkpoint of a Hungarian KFOR unit.

Parallel administrations

A few hours earlier we entered Mitrovica.

A city that shares two parallel administrations inhabited by mostly Albanians and ethnic Serbs.

The main bridge, the site of heavy fighting during the war, separates the two city centers.

The city is governed by

.

Two police stations under orders from Pristina, which on each side is supervised by a Serbian and an Albanian chief, although the work in the city is carried out jointly by agents of both ethnic groups.

And all under the watchful eye of the Italian Carabinieri, who guard the north side of the bridge at the Serb-dominated entrance.

A UN vehicle is parked right at the entrance to the bridge escorted by a platoon of British soldiers who tell us that we cannot stand in the area or take pictures.

Serbian flags fly from lampposts throughout this part of town.

Here they do not want to hear about the Euro and continue to use the Serbian dinar as their official currency.

Serbian license plates with the letters MK (Mitrovica Kosova) are covered with the white sticker.

The Serbian population is complying with the measure in its great majority, at least for now.

Belgrade has not commented so far on these first hours after the agreement.

On the Albanian side, all cars are registered with plates that say RKS (Republic of Kosovo).

NATO soldiers patrol in Leposavic, northern Kosovo.SASA DJORDJEVICAFP

Several people have passed with identity documents issued by the Pristina authorities, and they were not issued an accompanying document that replaced the

just like there is no accompanying document issued for citizens with Serbian identity documents, that the Pristina authorities planned to impose from today.

Unlike the northern pass, there are no armored vehicles or members of special police units near the Merdare checkpoint, the largest and busiest pass.

The Minister of the Interior of Pristina,

, visited the checkpoints in the north during the early hours of yesterday announcing the deployment of the special forces in the vicinity of the border posts.

In Pristina, they are not giving up on re-registering vehicles with Serbian license plates and the Serbs have announced a boycott.

There are now two months to go before Pristina and Belgrade can also come to an agreement to resolve the issue.

Marja, a Kosovo Serb journalist born in Mitrovica, shows us the

painted on some buildings on the Serbian side.

He tells us that the situation is less tense than at the end of July because there has been an agreement at least as far as identity cards are concerned.

"However, there is still a bit of a tense atmosphere because we don't know what is going to happen to the number plates. They can't force people to forget the Serbian symbols overnight. This may be the intention of the Albanians who govern in Pristina, who talk all the time that they are symbols of Milosevic. That is misleading people. We Serbs here and also in Belgrade have turned the page on this matter. Milosevic is not going to come back because he did a lot of damage to the people he claimed to represent.

[Prime Minister of Kosovo] does not want to know that most of us who live here are fully integrated into the institutions, we have Kosovo identity cards because we are from Kosovo.

But we also have our Serbian nationality, just as many people from the Albanian side also have Albanian identity cards.

But they do not recognize the Serbian institutions here and so they neglect and abandon the people.

That's why we need another municipality to have administrative issues a little organized."

But they do not recognize the Serbian institutions here and so they neglect and abandon the people.

That's why we need another municipality to have administrative issues a little organized."

But they do not recognize the Serbian institutions here and so they neglect and abandon the people.

That's why we need another municipality to have administrative issues a little organized."

Marja shows us the two identity documents she has, of which the one belonging to Kosovo is not valid to go to Serbia.

"At the Kosovo border I hand in my Kosovar document and a few steps later the Serbian one. Now we will see from today if we can enter with the document with which we feel identified."

There are other questions about deeper issues about what it would mean if Serbia finally recognized Kosovo.

Marja says that "surely someone could pass that, but Belgrade would never accept a

. Here are our roots as a country and I believe that agreements can be reached that benefit both parties, but our identity would never be renounced", Marja finishes.

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