Kosovo pushes ahead with car or truck licensing rule resisted by Serbs

JARINJE, Kosovo, Sept 1 (Reuters) – Dozens of U.S. NATO peacekeepers patrolled northern Kosovo on Thursday to maintain tranquil soon after Pristina announced that around 50,000 ethnic Serbs in the location would have to change their car license plates to regional ones within two months.

Kosovo, which is predominantly ethnic Albanian, has sought to compel Serbs to take Pristina’s authority in program bureaucratic issues given that successful independence in 2008 soon after nearly a decade-prolonged rebellion from Serbia’s repressive rule.

Serbia does not recognise Kosovo’s independence and Serbs in northern Kosovo consider Belgrade as their funds. read a lot more

In asserting the Oct. 31 deadline for motorists to change more than Serbian license plates to these issued by Pristina, Kosovo Primary Minister Albin Kurti explained the conclusion as “nothing more or significantly less than an expression of the workout of sovereignty.”

“Specified financial positive aspects will be available through registration, together with tax aid,” Kurti mentioned in Serbian in a video clip posted on his Facebook profile.

A push past calendar year to put into practice the car or truck licensing was met with protests by the Serbs in the north, who are backed by Belgrade and dwell close to Kosovo’s border with Serbia. Tensions flared yet again very last thirty day period following Pristina declared the rule would go into influence on Sept. 1, prompting ethnic Serbs to set up roadblocks.

Tensions eased right after Kurti, below U.S. and European Union force, agreed to postpone the swap. The roadblocks ended up taken out underneath the look at of NATO, which bombed Serbia in 1999 to close repression of Kosovo’s Albanians and now has about 3,700 peacekeepers in Kosovo. read much more

“If we are advised to transform the plates we will transform them, but I am not joyful with it,” Ratko Simic, a Serb from the northern town of Leposavic, told Reuters on Thursday as he crossed from Serbia into Kosovo.

The defence ministry in Serbia, which sees Kosovo as an integral component of Serbian territory, said on Wednesday it experienced stepped up schooling of some of its troops garrisoned close to the border with Kosovo.

Significant Common Ferenc Kajari, commander of NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, sought to dispel fears of an imminent conflict as peacekeepers who have patrolled the area for the previous two months fanned out to pre-empt any violence.

“We really don’t see any variety of indication even of a preparation for a war … People who feel responsibly they should not converse about war,” Kajari, a Hungarian, explained to Reuters in an job interview on Wednesday.

Talks among Kosovo and Serbia beneath the auspices of the European Union and U.S. envoys have so far failed to clear up the issue, while Belgrade and Pristina past week attained a deal on the use of private identification documents. study extra

Serbs account for 5% of the 1.8 million men and women in Kosovo. Serbia accuses Kosovo of trampling on the rights of this ethnic minority, a cost denied by Pristina.

Kosovo is recognised by some 100 countries which include the United States and all but 5 EU associates, but not by a selection of other states, notably Russia and China.

Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Fatos Bytyci Enhancing by Paul Simao and Philippa Fletcher

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