A truck that was part of the barricades put by Kosovo Serbs, was burned on December 28. Photo: Birn
After a meeting with Kosovo Serbs, the President of Serbia declared that following the release of detained policeman Dejan Pantic, the barricades in the north of Kosovo will be removed from Thursday morning. As of the time of the publication of this article, nothing has changed.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the barricades erected in northern Kosovo will be removed – speaking after a meeting with Kosovo Serb representatives on the evening of December 28 at the Serbian Army barracks in Raska, near the border with Kosovo.
“In 24 hours or 48 hours, the barricades will be removed,” Vucic said.
After the meeting, Vucic read the conclusion of the representatives of the Serbs from the north of Kosovo regarding the removal of the barricades.
The President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani on Wednesday declared that no barricades have been more dangerous than the last ones.
“Barricades have never been more dangerous than the ones that have been set up. The barricades are still there, not because there was no readiness of the Kosovo Police to remove them, but it was a joint assessment with international security institutions that the immediate removal could cause casualties,” she declared.
Osmani emphasized that if the barricades are not removed during these days, there will be agreed action with the internationals for their removal.
Meanwhile, the former ambassador of Kosovo in the US, Vlora Citaku, said that Vucic had created the problems himself – and was now being rewarded for solving them.
“Vucic is the pyromaniac and the fireman. He creates a problem, then he gets rewarded for solving the very problem he created,” he wrote on Twitter.
The latest developments came after the Special Prosecution in Kosovo on Wednesday changed the security measures for the detained former policeman Dejan Pantic from detention to house arrest.
The rapporteur for Kosovo in the European Parliament, Viola von Cramon, welcomed the release of the ethnic Serb former policeman, and called for the removal of the barricades.
“I warmly welcome the court decision to send Dejan Pantic, Kosovo police officer, to home custody. This should lead to the immediate removal of barricades in the north of Kosovo and full de-escalation,” Cramon stated.
However, some trucks that blocked the road in the location known as ‘Shkëmbi i Dudës’ in North Mitrovica were set on fire during Wednesday night.
Pantic was arrested on December 10 over an attack on the Central Election Commission, CEC, offices in Mitrovica.
The attack happened as CEC officials were settling in these offices in order to carry out elections scheduled for December 18, since postponed to April 23, 2023.
Tensions in the north have been rising since November, when Serb officials quit their posts in Kosovo institutions en masse. They culminated with the installation of barricades on December 10.
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