Following recent actions by the Kosovo government to shut down five parallel Serbian municipalities in the four northern municipalities, calls are being made in various “Telegram” groups to block the border crossings of Bernjak, Jarinje, and other points connecting Serbia with Kosovo. Security experts suggest these actions are Serbia’s attempt to disrupt the current calm in the northern municipalities.
The closure of the parallel Serbian municipalities in the four northern municipalities has displeased the Serbian community. As a result, for several days, there have been calls in different “Telegram” groups to block border crossings, including Jarinje, Bernjak, Merdare, Koncul, and Kula.
According to calls obtained by a television station, the blockade is planned to start on September 6, with the aim of defending Serbs in the northern municipalities.
“The blockade begins on September 6 at all crossings. Transportation is provided from Belgrade, Novi Sad, Smederevo, Kragujevac, Niš, Kruševac, Vranje, and Raška. We invite all our locals and citizens of Serbia who want to support us.”
Security experts in the country view these actions as Serbia’s attempt to create tensions in the northern municipalities.
Nuredin Ibishi told the television station that Kosovo’s institutions should coordinate with international actors to prevent the worsening of the security situation on the ground.
“These warnings only increase the nervousness of the Serbian leadership, which is unable to stop the flow of extending Kosovo’s institutional sovereignty in the north. I believe we should have a partnership with the international community, including KFOR and EULEX, to ensure the maintenance of order and calm both internally and at the border,” said Nuredin Ibishi, a security expert.
Meanwhile, criminology professor Fatmir Çollaku believes this is an orchestrated scenario by official Belgrade to portray Kosovo as a destabilizing country.
“There are many scenarios by Serbia; one of them is this, trying by all means to destabilize Kosovo and present a destructive image, a destructive tendency that is a bad image for Kosovo in the international arena. Certainly, in their calculations, it is to create incidents and escalate the situation from the calm state it is now to an unstable and unsafe situation,” he said.
According to Çollaku, everything is expected to be monitored by the Kosovo Police.
“The Kosovo Police are at a high level of duty; any potential attack or attempt at destabilization, the Kosovo Police are up to the task,” said Çollaku.
As the organizer of this protest, the Chairman of the Parallel Association of Citizens of the Mitrovica District, Rasha Rojević, stated that protesters will not leave the border crossings until the Kosovo Police withdraw from the north.
