Serb police, NATO boost forces after Kosovo violence (Reuters)

MITROVICA/BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian police and NATO troops reinforced checkpoints on both sides of the Kosovo border on Thursday to deter further ethnic violence after a frontier post was burned down and a policeman killed.

“We will prevent extremists from Serbia going to Kosovo, we will aid international peacekeepers there in any way we can,” Serbian police chief Milorad Veljovic told Reuters.

The border was quiet on Thursday after two days of violence in Kosovo’s Serbian-populated north in which one ethnic Albanian policeman died and a border crossing was set on fire by hard-line Serbian nationalists.

The European Union also stepped up pressure for Kosovo and Serbia to refrain from violence and make progress on bilateral talks.

“We are seriously concerned about the recent outbreak of violence at the border between Serbia and Kosovo,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said in a joint statement.

“We have said in the past and we reiterate now that the way neighborhood issues are dealt with is a key benchmark for an EU perspective,” they continued. “Tangible progress in all these areas will play a role in the EU’s discussions in the autumn.”

The troubles in Kosovo, which has a 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority, started after Pristina sent special police units on Monday to take control of northern border crossings and enforce a ban on imports from Serbia — in retaliation for its block on Kosovo’s exports in a dispute over customs regulations.

‘POWDER KEG’

The police retreated after the violence but Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci said on Thursday he would send them back to all border crossings.

“Reciprocity (trade) measures with Serbia will be applied in all border crossings … and this will continue until Serbia will change its position,” Thaci told parliament.

Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who was in New York for a closed meeting of the U.N. Security Council, said the situation was still tense.

“It’s definitely a powder keg given that there are roadblocks and there is a great deal of tension throughout the territory,” he told reporters. Jeremic was not present at the closed consultations, which only council members can attend.

He had urged the council to hold an open meeting on Kosovo on Friday, but the 15-nation panel decided there was no need for an emergency session, diplomats said.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008 in a move not recognized by Serbia, and the 60,000 Serbs who live in northern Kosovo still consider Belgrade their capital. A further 40,000 Serbs live in enclaves in the rest of Kosovo.

Serbs cherish Kosovo as the historic heartland of their Orthodox Christianity and most are bitterly opposed to its independence.

BORDER CALM

The situation at the burned Jarinje border crossing was calmer on Thursday with U.S. troops from the NATO peacekeeping contingent in Kosovo in control and checking cars for weapons, a Reuters correspondent said. NATO said it declared the two border posts a restricted military area. [nLDE76R1R0]

German General Erhard Buehler, commander of NATO troops in Kosovo, said buildings at the border crossing, 20 km (12 miles) north of the city of Mitrovica, were heavily damaged.

Peacekeepers, who still patrol Kosovo more than a decade after a 1998-1999 war between ethnic Albanians fighting for independence and Serb security forces, were also in control of another key border checkpoint.

Buehler also said NATO’s KFOR peacekeeping force would continue to deploy troops throughout Kosovo’s north to safeguard security and freedom of movement.

Jean-Francois Fitou, France’s ambassador in Pristina, told Reuters, “From the security point of view, the situation is not out of control but it is not good.”

During Wednesday’s attack on the Jarinje border post, Serbs threw fire bombs and fired at members of KFOR.

Thaci accused Belgrade on Wednesday of masterminding the violence, but Serbian President Boris Tadic said the attacks were staged by hard-line Serb nationalists opposed to Serbia’s bid to mend ties with its former southern province.

Belgrade wants to join the EU but must mend its ties with Kosovo to speed up the accession process. Pristina and Belgrade have started EU-moderated talks to improve trade, movement of people and issues like energy supplies, but negotiations have moved slowly.

Serbia lost control of Kosovo in 1999, when NATO waged a 78-day bombing campaign to end Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic’s crackdown on ethnic Albanian rebels and a bloody campaign of ethnic cleansing.

(Additional reporting by Nebojsa Markovic in Mitrovica, Adam Tanner in Belgrade and Louis Charbonneau at United Nations; Editing by Sophie Hares and Peter Cooney)

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