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Kosovo policemen near the Jarinje border crossing: fight against license plates
Photo: Visar Kryeziu / dpa
There are violent clashes over car license plates between Serbia and Kosovo.
Because according to a new regulation by the government in Pristina, license plates from Serbia are no longer allowed to be used in Kosovo.
With the regulation, Pristina reacted to the fact that Serbia for its part does not recognize the license plates introduced by Kosovo after the declaration of independence in 2008.
The measure affects several thousand Kosovar Serbs in the Serbian enclave around the city of Kosovska Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, who often still use vehicles with Serbian license plates.
But it also applies to travelers from Serbia.
They have to exchange their Serbian license plates for provisional Kosovar license plates at the border.
For a few days now, Kosovar Serb citizens have been protesting against this and blocking two border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia.
Now the protests are in the second week, reported the Serbian state television RTS.
Trouble with the Kosovar special police
The main concern of the Kosovar Serbs is that a week ago the Kosovar special police unit Rosu advanced to the border crossings at Jarinje and Brnjak in order to enforce the license plate regulation.
Since then, demonstrators have blocked the two main roads leading to Mitrovica.
Last week, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić put the Serbian military units stationed near the border into combat readiness.
Serbian military planes flew over the area near the Kosovo border several times.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell called on both Serbia and Kosovo to exercise restraint.
Both sides would have to solve their problems through negotiations, it said in their statements, which were published on Sunday.
lukewarm / dpa