Albanian PM in Kosovo as tensions rise, Serbia threatens military intervention

PRISHTINA, Sept. 27 – Tensions continue to be high at Kosovo’s northern border with Serbia, where a row over vehicle licence plates has led to border closures, ethnic Serb protests, torched Kosovo government offices and Serbia’s military amassing on Kosovo’s border. 

In the midst of the crisis, Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama visited Prishtina where he said Kosovo has a right to apply reciprocity rules for license plates with Serbia, adding Belgrade was overreacting to the situation. 

A group of Serb citizens are blocking the main roads in northern Kosovo to protest the Kosovo government’s decision to implement the reciprocity measure with Serbia for the use of temporary vehicle license plates. Serbia, which doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s statehood, has for years forced Kosovo vehicles to remove their licence plates and use temporary Serb ones once crossing the border. Last Monday, the Kosovo government sent special police units to enforce its decision that Serb vehicles must now be forced to do the same. 

The move provoked an angry reaction from Belgrade, which said it had raised the level of military readiness as its planes and helicopters, many recently obtained from Russia, flew near the border with Kosovo. Armored vehicles and troops were also stationed 2 kilometres away from the border points.

In one incendiary remark, Serb President Aleksandar Vucic said Monday NATO troops would only be given 24 hours to intervene if Kosovo Serbs are threatened, otherwise, he hinted, Serbia would send its troops in. In an interview on Serbia’s Pink TV, Vucic said: “We will wait 24 hours for you to react as NATO, and if the pogrom against our population continues, Serbia will react.”  

Vucic said that he had told NATO and European officials during the weekend that Serbia is ready to act. “We have 14 MiG-29s,” Vucic said he had told the Western officials. 

In Prishtina, Rama said Serbia is overreacting and should stop its “theatrics.”

“Kosovo is in the right,” Rama said, “Serbia has no right to make a mountain out of a molehill … as if the Kosovo government is seeking war when it is simply implementing a reciprocal agreement.”

At a joint conference with the Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Rama said Kosovo should carefully address its deployment of special police units to the conflict area so the issue does not become a problem “between Kosovo and international friends and partners.”

Prime Minister Rama said that the Albanian government is convinced that the problem should be resolved through dialogue. 

Prime Minister Kurti said that Kosovo is open to talks which have been rejected by Belgrade, while reiterating that the measure of reciprocity is not directed against Kosovo Serbs.

“We have made an offer with which we said that it is not worth having temporary license plates on both sides,” Kurti said. 

Kurti added the special police unit was not in the north to demonstrate force, but to protect border crossings and border police.

U.S. and European diplomats have called on both sides to reduce tensions and work together as part of talks in Brussels.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on Serbia and Kosovo to reduce tensions on the ground by immediately withdrawing special police units and removing barricades and announced a meeting of negotiators on both sides in the coming days.

Meanwhile, on Monday, NATO-led KFOR increased its patrols on the border with Serbia in a bid to lower tensions.

“KFOR has increased the number and time length of the routine patrolling all around Kosovo, including northern Kosovo,” KFOR said in a statement.

KFOR has around 4,000 troops from 28 countries. It is led by NATO but is supported by the United Nations, the European Union and other international actors. Its aim since the end of the war in 1999 is to keep the peace in Kosovo.