Brussels, 28/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - The tension that has been building for two days between Serbia and Kosovo over the situation in the north of Kosovo suddenly boiled over on Wednesday evening 27 July when one of the controversial border posts with Serbia was burned down, a turn of events which immediately alarmed the European Union. EU High Representative for Foreign Policy Catherine Ashton condemned the acts of violence as unacceptable and intolerable and called on the two parties to bring an end to them “without delay”. She said that she had spoken to Serbian President Boris Tadic and Kosovan Prime Minister Hashim Thaci by telephone and conveyed her “concern”, reminding them of their “responsibilities”. “It is now critical for both sides to return to dialogue and to resolve the underlying issues without delay”, she added.
Around 100 youths burned down the Jarinje border post in the north of Kosovo on the border with Serbia early on Wednesday evening. Serbian national television RTS broadcast pictures of hooded youths, most probably Serbs, throwing Molotov cocktails at the border post, and making use of a bulldozer to destroy it.
The spokesman for the European mission in Kosovo, Nicholas Hawton, told AFP that no one had been injured in this incident. The Jarinje border post is one of the two, the other being at Brnjak, which the Kosovan authorities decided to bring under their control, deploying special police units on Monday evening, much to the ire of the Serbs in the region. On Wednesday, the Serbian president called for calm, distancing himself from those responsible for the destruction of the Jarinje post. The Kosovan authorities said that the special police units had been deployed at Jarinje and Brnjak to enforce the ban imposed on the import of Serbian goods into Kosovo, after Kosovan Serbian police were suspected of not applying it.
This flashpoint between Serbia and Kosovo comes at a time when the bilateral dialogue in place since March under the auspices of the EU is going through a very difficult patch, with the latest round of talks being delayed until September. (L.C./transl.rt)