KFOR takes over control of checkpoints in north of Kosovo

The situation in that part of Kosovo is calm this morning.

The talks held between representatives of the Serbian government - Goran Bogdanovic and Borislav Stefanovic - and KFOR commander Erhard Buehler will continue today in order to find a permanent solution to the crisis, sparked after a Kosovo police, KPS, unit late on Monday attempted to take over the two posts.

According to the agreement, as of Thursday morning, there are no members of the KPS of any ethnicity at Jarinje, which was attacked and demolished last night.

At Brnjak, there are KFOR and KPS members, while only passenger cars are being let through on both checkpoints.

While early in the morning there were less people near Jarinje than in the previous days, Serbs have now again started to gather to make sure that KFOR honored the agreement reached last night.

Local Serbs were also gathered for a third night in several roads leading from northern, Serb part of the divided town of Kosovska Mitrovica to Jarinje and Brnjak.

In the town itself, the bridge over the Ibar River was closed by KFOR and EULEX personnel in trucks and armored vehicles.

Head of the Belgrade negotiating team in the Brussels-sponsored Kosovo dialogue Borislav Stefanovic confirmed early on Thursday for Tanjug that agreement had been reached with KFOR commander.

"Despite the very unfavorable situation in Jarinje, we have been given strong guarantees that there will be no incursion of Kosovo special police units and that there will be no attempt of bringing Albanian customs officers to the administrative crossing," Stefanovic said.

"Basically, we are supposed to discuss several more details during the day, because we find as unacceptable everything except what things looked like three days ago," Stefanovic concluded in the statement for Tanjug.

The current crisis started when Pristina decided to send the Rosu unit of the KPS to take over the checkpoints, until that moment controlled by EULEX customs and Serb members of the KPS.

Their goal was to enforce a decision to ban Serbian goods from entry, introduced as Serbia refuses to accept customs stamps with "state of Kosovo" symbols.

Serbia accepts goods that come with the Kosovo/UNMIK stamps - the format under which Pristina joined the regional free trade organization CEFTA.

Neither official Belgrade nor Serbs in the northern part of Kosovo recognize the ethnic Albanian unilateral declaration of independence made in February 2008.