NATO, EU Expand Control on Kosovo Border Crossing

13 Oct 2011 DefenseNews AFP

PRISTINA - NATO peacekeepers and EU police started a joint operation on Oct. 13 to expand control around Kosovo's most sensitive border crossing with Serbia in the flashpoint north, officials said.

"This morning, KFOR and EULEX began joint operations to establish control in the Jarinje gate vicinity," the NATO force said in a press release.

"KFOR started the operation at the request of EULEX to help prevent the illegal use of the bypass around the official gate and to stop smuggling."

After local Serbs' refusal to remove a barricade that blocked KFOR's approach to a nearby base, NATO soldiers started checking vehicles on an alternative road used by Serbs, an AFP correspondent at the scene reported.

Following KFOR's move there were no incidents and the situation was calm during the morning.

A trade row spilled over into violence late July when Pristina ordered its security forces to take over two border crossings to Serbia to enforce a newly imposed ban on Serbian goods.

The ethnic Albanian Kosovo government said the ban was being ignored by ethnic Serb members of Kosovo's border police.

Serbs in northern Kosovo reacted angrily and an ethnic Albanian police officer was killed and four injured in ensuing clashes.

NATO troops stepped in when the Jarinje border post was set on fire and bulldozed, apparently by ethnic Serbs.

Local Serbs have for weeks been manning 16 barricades blocking the main access roads to the border gates.

"KFOR reserves the right to remove the barricades when appropriate and will not tolerate them endlessly" KFOR's commander, German Gen. Erhard Drews, warned.

"People should stay away from roadblocks and barricades and not participate in illegal protests and activities."

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008 but Serbia still