Two years since eruption of crisis in Kosovo
Thursday marked the 2nd anniversary of the crisis in northern Kosovo, started when the Kosovo special police attempted to seize the administrative crossings Jarinje and Brnjak.
(kosovocompromisestuff) Sunday, July 28, 2013
The police initiated on the night between July 24 and 25, 2011, an operation to seize the crossings, which caused a reaction from the local Serb population.
The clashes in the municipality of Zubin Potok resulted in a number of civilian injuries and one member of the Kosovo special police, Enver Zumberi, was killed.
Serbs from the northern Kosovo set up roadblocks to prevent the police from taking control of the two crossings leading into central Serbia.
Of all the barricades placed two years ago, two remain, one on the main bridge over the river Ibar in the ethnically divided Kosovska Mitrovica and the other in a street in the same city leading to a part of it known as Bosnjacka Mahala.
During the two-year crisis, control of the northern Kosovo crossings was taken by KFOR, which the local Serbs often conflicted with, and Jarinje was set on fire on July 27, 2011.
The two crossings are integrated today and contain both Serbian and Kosovo customs officials, the Kosovo and Serbian police and officials of EULEX.
