Kosovo Albanians block roads in protest at Serbian leader’s visit
KOSOVO Albanians yesterday blocked roads and burned tyres on a planned route by Serbia’s president in the former Serbian province, fuelling tensions between the two Balkan foes.
During his two-day trip, Aleksandar Vučić planned to visit a Serb-populated village in central Kosovo, but roads leading to the region were blocked by wooden logs, trucks and heavy machinery, preventing him from reaching his destination.
The president and his entourage were stopped by Kosovo police on the road to the Drenica region and were told they could not continue for security reasons.
Drenica was the scene of the first bloody crackdown by Serb troops against ethnic Albanian separatists in 1998.
Hashim Thaçi, Kosovo’s president, said that opposition by his country’s citizens to the visit by Mr Vučić was understandable, but he urged restraint for the sake of peace and reconciliation after the 1998-99 war.
Serbia and Kosovo must mend ties to advance toward European Union membership and the two sides have been engaged in Eu-mediated negotiations.
Despite expectations, Mr Vučić failed to outline a concrete proposal for a future deal with Kosovo during his trip. Mr Thaçi said on his Facebook page that the blockade “shows that the pain and war injuries are still fresh”.
He added that as Kosovo and Serbia seek to mend ties, “the protests and road-blocking don’t help us”. “We should know to raise beyond ourselves, beyond the injuries and manifold pain,” said Mr Thaçi, who was a rebel commander during the war.
“We should do this on behalf of peace and reconciliation.”
Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo’s prime minister, wrote on Facebook that he had “cancelled the permission issued by the foreign affairs ministry for Serb president’s visit to the Drenica zone”.
“Citizens’ security is above all,” he added. Mr Vučić said gunfire could be heard from the roadblocks.
“I don’t like guns, but we won’t allow anyone to harass Serbs in Kosovo,” Mr Vučić said. He did not indicate what kind of response he had in mind, but said that he would not call for the arming of Kosovo Serbs in retaliation.
Mr Vučić was a fiery ultranationalist during the war.
Kosovo was a Serbian province when a crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in 1998-99 led to the deaths of more than 10,000 people.