Tensions have temporarily been lowered between ethnic Albanians and Serbs in Kosovo, following an agreement to lift road blocks erected by Serbians following the release of Serbians that have been held under arrest by Kosovo authorities.
In the past days, tensions had been escalating as protestors on the Serbian side blocked the border crossing and Kosovo closed the biggest border crossing. These actions followed a series of actions-and-reactions: the decision by Kosovo officials to hold elections to replace ethnic Serb officials who had quit their jobs in protest over an ongoing dispute over new Kosovo requirements on license plates, leading to Serbian protestors erecting barricades while Kosovo authorities deployed security forces into the Serbian region. Serbia had deployed security forces near the border.
Following a meeting between Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the Kosovo Serbs on December 28, it was agreed that the barricades would be removed. But Vucic warned: “Those who are playing with [the] very existence of Serbs in Kosovo must know that, just as we didn’t allow it now, we will not allow it in the future either.”
Vucic reported that the European Union and the United States, who are mediating talks between Belgrade and Pristina to resolve the tense dispute, have guaranteed that none of the Serbs who set up barricades will be prosecuted. The EU and US had said in a joint statement on Wednesday that they welcomed “the assurances of the leadership of Kosovo confirming that no lists of Kosovo Serb citizens to be arrested or prosecuted for peaceful protests/barricades exist. At the same time, rule of law must be respected, and any form of violence is unacceptable and will not be tolerated,” the statement added.
Nonetheless, the pot continues to boil as the Kosovo authorities, in a wild provocation, banned Serbian Patriarch Porfiry from entering Kosovo, thus blocking him from visiting the Pečka Patriarchate before the great feast of the Nativity of Christ. This, despite the fact that the Pečka Patriarchate is his official residence! The Serbian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas on Jan. 7.
The Patriarch remarked that this was as if someone “tried to prevent the Pope of Rome from entering the Vatican.” Nonetheless, he appealed for restraint and a peaceful solution to the ongoing tensions. “Serbs have lived in Kosovo and Metohija for 15 centuries, five of them alongside Albanians. If there is good will, we can find a way to live together,” he said on Tuesday.
