MERDARE, Serbia -- All border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia have reopened after blockades set up by Serbian activist angry over Kosovar government policies ended, Kosovar Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said on September 7.
Svecla said the two border crossings at Merdare and at Brnjak that the Kosovar authorities had closed late on September 6 were reopened on September 7. The crossing at Jarinje had already reopened in the morning, he said.
The reopening of the border crossings came after Serbian associations lifted all blockades set up on September 6 to protest the closure of institutions in northern Kosovo that support ethnic Serbs.
Kosovar authorities claimed there were masked men at the Brnjak crossing, prompting the move to shut it and the larger one at Merdare. Masked men were seen at the Brnjak crossing by an RFE/RL correspondent, who recorded video of them at a makeshift checkpoint set up on the road.
"After receiving the announcements that the blockades created by masked extremists that were placed yesterday in the territory of Serbia have already been removed, and seeing that there are no obstacles to traffic from and to the border points of the Republic of Kosovo, we made the decision to open for circulation the border points Merdare and Bernjak," Svecla said on Facebook, using the Kosovar spelling for the crossing point.
The government said late on September 6 that it had closed the border crossings after Kosovar Serbs and supporters from Serbia began settling up the checkpoints and blocking roads leading from Kosovo into Serbia, turning back passengers with Kosovar documents.
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Serbs Block Border As Kosovo Cracks Down On Parallel Municipalities
Svecla complained on September 6 that "masked extremists" in Serbia were "selectively stopping...citizens who want to transit through Serbia" to third countries. "And all this in plain sight of the Serbian authorities," he said on Facebook, adding, "This fact makes [Serbia] an accomplice."
Kosovar Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla-Schwarz also accused Serbian police of inaction, saying they were present but did nothing to ensure the free movement of citizens. She said on Facebook that the protests were “yet more proof” that Belgrade was trying to provoke and destabilize Kosovo.
The Serbian authorities have not yet commented.
The organizers of the action demand the return of five Kosovar Serb "parallel institutions" that have been closed in northern Kosovo, as well as the restoration of the Serbian currency and documentation.
They are also demanding the withdrawal of Kosovar police from the Serb-majority region and have called for the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) to take control.
Dragisa Miric, president of the Koreni association in Nis, Serbia, told RFE/RL the associations involved in the blockade would wait until October 1 and that if their demands are not met, they would reinstate the blockades.
In the past two years, Kurti's government has worked intensively to establish power in the north of Kosovo, which has been met with resistance from the local population and sometimes criticism from the international community.
Some of the decisions that have been implemented are the reregistration of vehicles from Serbian license plates to those of Kosovo, updating driver's licenses, discontinuing the use of the Serbian dinar, and the closure of certain institutions that work in the Serbian system.
Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, has an ethnic Serbian majority in several districts, while ethnic Albanians overwhelmingly populate the rest of the Balkan country. Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo's independence.
The situation in northern Kosovo has been volatile for months. The latest cause of friction was the opening of the main bridge in Mitrovica that divides the city into the Albanian-majority south and the Serb-majority north.