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Kosovo, calling on citizens to avoid crossing through Serbia at all costs

2024-04-17 11:34:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Kosovo, calling on citizens to avoid crossing through Serbia at all costs

Illustrative photo

The authorities in Kosovo have called on citizens who are traveling to avoid "at all costs" passing through the territory of Serbia.

This call, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, is made "after the situation created at the border points in Serbia and the arbitrary stop of Kosovo citizens at border crossings".

"All travelers are requested to follow the tense security situation closely and not to travel through Serbia", it was said in the joint announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The call comes after the secretary of the Liaison Office of Kosovo in Belgrade, Fatmir Haxholli, said that the authorities in Serbia "have been blocking" at least four buses with license plates and passengers from Kosovo since midnight.

According to him, the blocking of buses at the Batrovci border crossing, which connects Serbia with Croatia, was done "as a sign of revenge and absurd nervousness" towards the vote in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in support of Kosovo's membership in this organization.

"The blocking of more than 300 citizens, keeping their passports and travel documents, is a flagrant violation not only of the Brussels agreements, but also of universal human rights guaranteed by all international conventions. "Only the most authoritarian regimes block travelers from another country, with the explanation 'this is an order from Belgrade,'" he wrote on his Facebook account.

Haxholli said that since the Serbian Liaison Office is communicating with the Kosovo Liaison Office, adding that he intends to travel to the Serbia-Croatia border crossing to see closely the situation of the citizens of Kosovo who remain stranded there.

On April 16, the Parliamentary Assembly approved the recommendation for Kosovo's admission to the Council of Europe. The issue will now be sent to the Council of Ministers, which meets in May, the body that gives the final answer on a country's membership in this organization.

Serbia opposes Kosovo's membership in the Council of Europe and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Ivica Dacic, declared after the vote that his country will continue the fight "with all its forces" so that the decision is not approved at the meeting of Foreign Ministers. of the Council of Europe on May 16.

Even in the past, citizens of Kosovo passing through Serbia have encountered problems, with some of them being arrested by the Serbian authorities under suspicion of war crimes./ REL