The road near the border point between Serbia and Kosovo in Merdare is partially blocked

2024-09-06 19:48:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The road near the border point between Serbia and Kosovo in Merdare is partially

The road near the border crossing point between Serbia and Kosovo, Merdare, was blocked in the Serbian part on Friday afternoon.

Two cars, one with a Serbian flag on the passenger window, and several people next to them are seen parked in the middle of the road leading to the border point to Kosovo, in Merdare.

As announced, the roads will be blocked at the other two border points between Serbia and Kosovo - Jarinje and Bërnjak - as well as near the crossing point between Kosovo and Montenegro, in Kula.

In the Kosovar part of the border crossing point in Jarinje, the journalist of Radio Evropa e Lire said that the situation is calm and that vehicles mostly with Serbian license plates are seen crossing the border on both sides.

Rasha Rojevic, head of the Kosovo-Mitrovica District Citizens' Association, one of the eight associations organizing the blockades, told Radio Free Europe (REL) earlier that this is a "selective blockade", which means they will allow only travelers with Serbian documents can cross the border from the Serbian side. Rojevic said in an interview for REL that the blockades are "reciprocity of what Kurti is doing to the Serbs" in Kosovo.

According to the REL journalist, in the Serbian part of the border in Merdarë, cars with Serbian license plates can pass without any problems, while those with Kosovo license plates are being stopped and checked to see if they have Serbian documents.

However, the trucks are being stopped regardless of whether they have Serbian or Kosovo license plates, according to him. The blocking of border crossing points on the Serbian side between Serbia and Kosovo was announced days ago by Serbian people, as a sign of protest against the recent developments in the north of Kosovo - a part inhabited by a majority of Serbs.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora of Kosovo (MPJD) called on citizens of Kosovo and Kosovar emigrants to avoid border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia during their transit journeys.

The Kosovo authorities have angered Serbia with a series of actions they have taken in the north of the country in recent months - for which they have been criticized by the international community.

Last week, Prime Minister Albin Kurti's government closed five parallel Serbian institutions in four Serb-majority municipalities, which it said were operating in violation of the country's laws and constitution. The workers of those parallel institutions protested for two days against their closure.

The closure of these parallel institutions was preceded by the banning of the Serbian dinar and the closure of several branches of the Post of Serbia in the north earlier this year.

In Kosovo, there are municipalities, public companies and enterprises, kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and public universities that are directly financed by the Government of Serbia, and which are located in the cities and towns where the Serbian community lives.

According to the laws in Kosovo, these institutions are illegal. In 2013, Kosovo and Serbia, in the dialogue for the normalization of relations in Brussels, reached an agreement on the extinction of parallel institutions, but this agreement has not yet been fully implemented.

The government of Kosovo has repeatedly said that it is trying to establish law and order, especially in the north of Kosovo inhabited by a majority of Serbs, by extinguishing the parallel Serbian institutions.

The decisions of Kurti's Government have been severely criticized as "unilateral and uncoordinated" by the international community, which has said that they risk increasing tensions.

In 2022, Serbs in the north blocked the roads to the border points between Kosovo and Serbia after the arrest of a former Serbian police officer of the Kosovo Police. They were removed after a few weeks./ Rel