Serbia’s president sent his army chief to the Kosovo border as ties between the feuding neighbors degenerated further after recent roadblocks set up in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade refuses to recognize the move, encouraging the remaining 120,000 Serbs to challenge Pristina’s authority.
The head of the Serbian army, General Milan Mojsilovic, said on Sunday that “the situation there is complicated and complex,” adding that “the presence of the Serbian army was needed along the administrative line,” or border.
Read also | South Korea fires warning shots after North Korean drone raid: Seoul Army
Hundreds of ethnic Serbs, outraged by the arrest of a former police officer, set up barricades on December 10 in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo, halting traffic through two border crossings.
The general said late Sunday that he was heading to Raska, a town about 10 kilometers (six miles) from the border, after meeting with President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.
“The tasks that the Serbian army has… are precise, clear and will be fully implemented,” Mojsilovic said.
Read also | Frigid Monster Storm in US Claims At Least 34 Lives, Blizzard Knocks Out Power, Disrupts Travel
Shortly before Mojsilovic left for the border, several Serbian pro-government media released a video of gunshots being heard.
The media said it was about “fights” that occurred on Sunday night when Kosovar forces tried to dismantle a barricade.
This was rejected by the Kosovo police in a Facebook post.
The NATO-led peacekeeping force, KFOR, said it was investigating a “25 December incident of indirect fire in the vicinity of a NATO KFOR patrol” involving an unknown number of armed individuals. .
“There were no injuries or material damage, and we are working to establish all the facts,” KFOR said in a statement.
The latest flare-up came after Kosovo scheduled local elections in Serb-majority municipalities that the main Serbian political party said it would boycott.
A former police officer suspected of involvement in attacks against ethnic Albanian police officers has been detained, outraging the ethnic Serbs who erected the barricades.
In November, hundreds of ethnic Serb police officers embedded in the Kosovo police, as well as judges, prosecutors and other officials, walked off the job to protest a controversial decision to ban Serbs living in Kosovo from wearing Belgrade-issued badges. .
Pristina later removed it, but mass strikes created a security vacuum in Kosovo.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said last week that the situation with Kosovo was “on the brink of armed conflict.”
