Bus prevented from entering Kosovo
A bus with 40 passengers was stopped at an administrative line between central Serbia and Kosovo and was not allowed to enter the province.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Tuesday, August 16, 2011
This was confirmed late on Monday by General Manager of the Belgrade-based Lasta Transport Company Velibor Sovrovic.
The bus operates on its regular route to Ranilug and Šilovo, the two villages in the Serb enclave east of the town of Gnjilane in eastern Kosovo.
According to Sovrovic, the bus left Belgrade yesterday around 03:00 CET on Monday and Kosovo police (KPS) did not allow it to enter the province at the at the Končulj-Bela Zemlja administrative crossing.
The people on the bus, including a number of women and children, phoned their relatives and friends asking for help and after two hours of waiting at the crossing, they were finally transferred to their destinations by private cars and vans, Sovrovic said.
He said a KPS member "asked the bus driver a license authorized by Pristina that Lasta could operate on Kosovo territory" and added that it was not the first time Lasta had such problems.
Lasta buses were stopped at the Konculj crossing several times last year, but at the insistence of the passengers and the driver, they were allowed to enter Kosovo eventually.
