Kosovar authorities closed two of the four border crossings with Serbia after protesters on the Serbian side blocked the road and prevented motorists with Kosovar documents from passing.
The now closed Brnjak and Merdare posts are located in northern Kosovo, where the population is predominantly of Serb origin.
Kosovo’s Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said the closures were a response to “masked extremist groups in Serbia” who were selectively blocking the transit of travelers.
The remarks come after reports emerged of Kosovar and Serbian activists stopping traffic at the Brnjak border crossing and only allowing drivers with Serbian documents to pass.
“Those who have only Kosovar documents will not pass. Why? Because our brothers and sisters from Kosovo cannot drive with documents issued by the Republic of Serbia,” said Rojevic, head of the Mitrovica district citizens’ association in Kosovo.
In Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, protesters boarded buses heading to the border to take part in the blockade.
“The motivation is to help these people and support them. They need to see that they are not alone and that someone cares about them,” Gorica Doncic Puzovic said.
Protesters began blocking the border crossing late Friday, preventing vehicles from crossing from Kosovo into Serbia.
They said they were protesting against the closure by the Pristina authorities of parallel administrations that ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo had set up to compete with the official administrations.
The Serbian government funds health, education and social security systems in Kosovo for the ethnic Serb population living in the north.
Serbian protesters told local media that the blockade would last until Kosovar police were “withdrawn from northern Kosovo and usurped institutions returned to the Serbs.”
Some have also called for KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, to take control of the northern region of Kosovo.
“An urgent appeal to KFOR and UNMIK [Mission d’administration intérimaire des Nations unies au Kosovo] should be sent to northern Kosovo. We will continue to demonstrate here until the issue of northern Kosovo is resolved,” said Dragisa Miric, a Serbian activist.
Ms Miric then said the protesters had lifted the blockade until October 1 and would wait to see if their demands were met before taking further action.
Hotbed of tension
Northern Kosovo has long been a hotbed of tension between Belgrade and Pristina.
The blockade came just days after police in northern Kosovo raided and closed five administrative offices linked to the Belgrade government, further inflaming tensions.
Earlier this year, Kosovo made the euro the country’s sole legal tender, effectively banning the use of the Serbian dinar.
The border blockade began on the same day that the European Union’s envoy for the Western Balkans urged Kosovo and Serbia to step up efforts to normalise relations, saying such a move would be crucial for both countries’ accession to the European Union.
Kosovo was a Serbian province until a 78-day NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and Kosovo Albanian separatists that left about 13,000 people dead, mostly ethnic Albanians, and prompted Serbian forces to withdraw.
Serbia does not recognise Kosovo’s independence, which was declared in 2008, and the two sides have difficult relations.
