Tensions rise in the northern Kosovo because local Serbs block roads. Serbia places army on alert

MITROVICA, Kosovo (Reuters] – Protesting Serbs in Mitrovica in northern Kosovo erected more barricades Tuesday after Serbia declared that its army was on high alert for combat. This came just hours after the Serbian government had announced it had increased the combat alert level to its army following increasing tensions between Belgrade & Pristina over the past weeks.

The Serbian defence ministry stated late Monday night that, in response to recent events and the belief that Kosovo was planning to attack Serbs, President Aleksandar Vucic ordered Serbia’s police and army to be on high alert.

RTS television’s Milos Vucevic, Serbia’s defense minister, said late Monday that there was no need to panic but that there was reason to be concerned.

After the arrest of a former Serb officer for allegedly assaulting police officers in a previous protest, Serbs have set up multiple roadblocks around Mitrovica since Dec. 10.

About 50,000 Serbs reside in northern Kosovo, which is majority Albanian. They are opposed to the Pristina government and state. They consider Belgrade their capital and are supported by Serbia, which declared Kosovo independence in 2008.

“Kosovo must not engage in dialogue and allow criminal gangs to control our movement. “There should not be any barricades along any road,” said the Kosovan government in a Monday statement.

It said that police were ready and able to act, but they waited for NATO’s KFOR Kosovo peacekeeping force to respond to their request to move the barricades.

KFOR released a statement saying that it urged all sides to work together to ensure security and freedom in Kosovo and to prevent misleading narratives from hindering the dialogue process.

On Tuesday morning, trucks were parked in Mitrovica to block the road connecting the Serb-majority area of the town with its Albanian-majority counterpart.

Local Serbs demand the release of the officer in custody and other demands before they remove the barricades.

Last month, ethnic Serb mayors from northern municipalities and 600 police officers resigned in protest at a Kosovo government’s decision to replace Serbian car license plates with Pristina-issued ones.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac and Fatos Bytyci, Editing by Alexandra Hudson