Border ablaze

Peacekeepers with NATO have taken control of a border point in northern Kosovo where tensions had erupted on Wednesday night. Dozens of youths set fire to one of two border crossings with Serbia, and fired shots at members of the NATO KFOR peacekeeping force.

It's alleged that ethnic Serbs firebombed and bulldozed the border point in reaction to a trade dispute between Kosovo and Serbia.

RTS national television broadcast footage of masked young people, apparently ethnic Serbs, throwing Molotov cocktails at the Jarinje border post and destroying it with the help of a bulldozer.

Finger pointing and condemnation

Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci was quick to blame the Serbian government for the border attack.

"These violent acts were ordered, coordinated and managed by the highest political structures of the government of Serbia," he told reporters at a late-night news conference.

"It was done by masked people but everything is clear. Behind this is Belgrade," Thaci added.

Serbian President Boris Tadic meanwhile called for an end to the violence, blaming ethnic Serb and Albanian extremists. He said the extremists were trying to undermine talks that Serbia and the majority-Albanian Kosovo launched in March under the auspices of the European Union.

"Extremists and hooligans act against the interests of Serbian citizens and Serbia and join with the Albanian extremists who want to end, through unilateral acts and violence, the peace process and dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina," Tadic said in a statement.

Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Goran Bogdanovic, also weighed in on the debate, saying "the people (in the region) support the efforts of the Serbian government to calm the situation. These criminal gangs and extremists will stop at nothing to undo all our efforts."

EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton also condemned the violence.

"These latest developments are unacceptable," Ashton said in a statement. "It is the responsibility of both Belgrade and Pristina to immediately defuse the tensions, and restore calm and security for everyone. Violence will never be tolerated and unilateral actions are not the way forward."

Clashes threaten Serbian EU membership

Soldiers of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission KFOR have blocked the area around Jarinje, RTS television reported.

Jarinje is one of two checkpoints in northern Kosovo that the tiny country's government in Pristina ordered seized Monday in a surprise police operation.

The Kosovar government sent elite police units to capture the Brnjak and Jarinje border crossings from Serbia as part of an escalating trade row between the countries. One officer was killed and four others hurt in a clash with local Serbs.

Pristina's goal was to replace local Serb police officers suspected of ignoring imports from Serbia after a ban was introduced a week ago. The ban was Pristina's response to Serbia's refusal to lift a de facto trade embargo on goods from Kosovo.

Serbia, which insists it is sovereign over Kosovo, called for an emergency United Nations Security Council debate on the dispute with its former province. A meeting behind closed doors is scheduled to take place on Thursday.

The deadlock in talks between the countries could threaten Serbia's candidacy for EU membership. European officials have said normalized relations with Kosovo must be met for Serbia to join the bloc.

Author: David Levitz, Zulfikar Abbany (AFP, dpa)
Editor: Andreas Illmer, Ben Knight