Kosovo Serbs resist Belgrade call to end impasse

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 09:02 GMT

Source: reuters // Reuters

By Aleksandar Vasovic

BELGRADE, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Serbian President Boris Tadic urged an end to a tense stand-off between Serbs and NATO troops in Kosovo but was rebuffed by hardline Kosovo Serb leaders after five hours of talks late on Sunday.

Tadic is under pressure from the European Union to resolve a three-month-long stalemate between NATO peacekeepers and Serbs manning barricades in the north of Serbia's former province.

Kosovo Serbs are resisting attempts by the country's ethnic Albanian authorities to extend their writ to the largely lawless north, more than three years after Pristina declared independence from Serbia with the backing of Western powers.

Tadic, whose government wants to remove any possible obstacles to clinching EU candidate status in December, urged Serbs in north Kosovo to allow free movement for NATO's Kosovo force (KFOR) and an EU police and justice mission (EULEX).

The Kosovo Serbs are angry at attempts to install Kosovo police and customs officers at two disputed border crossings with Serbia, and violence has flared several times since they threw up roadblocks in July.

"The president has reiterated the necessity of securing normal supply lines and free movement of KFOR, as well as the EULEX mission, on condition they do not transport representatives of the Kosovo institutions," Tadic's office said in a statement after talks with Kosovo Serb community leaders dragged into the night.

NATO and EULEX are currently using helicopters to supply the border posts. Talks between NATO and the north Kosovo Serbs have so far failed to break the deadlock.

Speaking after the meeting in Belgrade with Tadic, Mayor Slavisa Ristic from the north Kosovo town of Zubin Potok told reporters: "The barricades will remain and we will not allow passage until things are resolved in line with our demands."

Tadic last week accused nationalist political parties in Belgrade of stoking the crisis in Kosovo ahead of a Serbian parliamentary election expected in early 2012.

Serbia lost control over the territory of 1.7 million people in 1999, when NATO carried out air strikes for 78 days to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians in a two-year Serbian counter-insurgency war.

Ethnic Albanians make up 90 percent of the population.

Serbia still effectively runs the Serb-dominated north of Kosovo, but is under pressure to resolve the impasse and mend ties with Pristina if the EU is to grant it candidate status in December and eventually open accession talks.

More than 80 countries, including the United States and most EU states, have recognised Kosovo as a sovereign country. (Editing by Matt Robinson and Mark Heinrich)

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