Kosovo PM gives until night for Kosovo Serbs to erect their barricades in the north

Serbia convenes an extraordinary meeting of its National Security Council while demanding the international community to "do its job"

MADRID, 11 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has given the Kosovo Serb population until Sunday night to remove the barricades that they have erected in protest of the arrest of a former police officer, in the midst of an aggravation during the last hours of the long crisis between Belgrade and Pristina.

According to Vecherne Novosti sources, Kurti has informed the countries that make up the quintet on Kosovo (USA, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy) of this ultimatum "whom he has warned that the so-called Kosovo security structures, led by NJSO Police Special Units, right now on high alert, will take all measures to remove the barricades in the north."

In immediate reaction to this statement, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has called an emergency meeting of his National Security Council to discuss a response in the event of a security intervention against the Kosovo Serb population, according to Serbian public television RTS. .

The president of the Kosovo Serbian List party, Goran Rakic, has also issued the warning that Kurti will send units of the Kosovo Police and special security service tonight to "persecute the Serb people" and "unleash a storm". about the population.

"This is the moment when the responsibility falls on (NATO force) KFOR and (European Union mission) EULEX, to avoid the chaos that Kurti is preparing," said Rakic, whose party was ruling the four Serb-majority municipalities in northern Kosovo before announcing a total boycott in November with the resignation of all their mayors and their withdrawal from local elections initially scheduled for next week, now postponed to April.

The Kosovo Serb barricades were erected in protest against the arrest of former Kosovo Serb policeman Dejan Pantic, who was detained by the Kosovo Police upon returning to his home. Pantic, like 600 other Kosovar Serb agents, resigned from his position within the boycott declared by Lista Serbia, in the latest episode of a simmering conflict since Kosovo's independence in 2008 and the so-called license plate crisis over the power to identify drivers. vehicles between Pristina and Belgrade.

Given the latest intensification of the conflict, caused by the unidentified attack last night against a EULEX patrol with a stun grenade, which has left no victims to regret, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, has called for calm and called for the lifting of the barricades.

In response, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic has responded that these obstacles "are there not only because your (Kosovar Serbs) basic human rights are threatened, but also to protect the Brussels Agreement that you signed and whose implementation should ensure the European Union".

According to her, the barricades are a "call for peace and, also, a call to action for the international community to start doing its job!", she lamented in a message on her Twitter account.