Brussels, 16/09/2011 (Agence Europe) - A spokesperson for EU diplomatic corps chief Catherine Ashton recently announced that EULEX customs experts and Kosovan customs officials, escorted by KFOR troops, were sent in the morning of 16 September 2011 to occupy two contested border crossings in North Kosovo, at Brnjak and Jarinje. Maja Kocijancic said the operation is part of the agreements signed in Brussels on 2 September 2011 between the governments of Pristina and Belgrade, and the aim is to restore border controls along the northern Kosovan border to allow people to cross the border legally.
Reuters says that Serbs and Kosovans who oppose the border controls by the Pristina government blockaded access to the border points with lorries on Thursday morning. When the soldiers arrived, the former took shelter behind barricades some fifty yards from the customs buildings. In July 2011, Pristina tried to occupy the border points, with Serbians and Kosovans pushing out civil servants and an Albanian policeman being killed. A spokesperson for the Serb government told Reuters that he hoped that both Serbs and Kosovans would avoid provocation because violence would only play into the hands of the Pristina government. (DD/transl.fl)