Both checkpoints in north Kosovo blocked
One Kosovo customs officer arrived at the Brnjak administrative crossing by helicopter around 09:30, according to reports.
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, September 16, 2011
The EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, would "neither deny nor confirm" the report, according to the news agency.
In Pristina, Kosovo Albanian PM Hashim Thaci has claimed that "Kosovo border police and customs and EULEX teams have been deployed at the Jarinje and Brnjak crossings".
Serbs have in the meantime reinforced their barricade near Brnjak by dumping a huge mass of soil onto the road - this barrier is now five meters high.
Beside the trucks blocking the road, passenger cars formed a line that stretches for several kilometers, cutting off Brnjak from the direction of Ribarić as well, since there are trucks and cars blocking the so-called buffer zone.
In front of Jarinje, which German members of the NATO troops in the province, KFOR, on Thursday closed and placed barbed wire around, Serbs continue to build the barricade. According to reports, the checkpoint is now hardly visible from a huge mass of gravel placed on the road, while trucks continue to ship in more.
The situation in Kosovo was peaceful on Friday morning but there are tensions since EULEX was expected to take over the Jarinje and Brnjak administrative crossings.
Kosovo Serbs blocked local roads, while Serb members of the Kosovo police, KPS, left Brnjak.
German KFOR troops told reporters at the Jarinje checkpoint earlier this morning that only EULEX officers had been deployed and that Kosovo customs and border police officers were not among them.
They stressed that the checkpoint will not be reopened until citizens, who spent the night at the barricade on the road leading to the checkpoint, went home.
Leposavic residents gathered this morning in large numbers at the Jarinje checkpoint which KFOR troops shut down last night using barbed wire.
Both German and French KFOR troops are present at the Brnjak checkpoint which was also closed on Thursday night. KFOR used barbed wire and vehicles to block access to the crossing.
Local Serbs parked a truck in the middle of the road about 100 meters in front of the checkpoint, blocking traffic.
Citizens also blocked a KFOR unit which was on its way back to Camp Nothing Hill in the village of Sočanica around 23:00 CET.
