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Serbian soldiers near the border with Kosovo
Photo: IRFAN LICINA / AFP
Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia are intensifying.
Serbia has further increased its military presence in the border area.
As an AFP correspondent reported, the military moved four armored vehicles to the border with Kosovo.
According to the AFP correspondent, the four armored Serbian vehicles were only about two kilometers from the Jarinje border crossing in northern Kosovo.
The state TV broadcaster RTS published recordings showing the vehicles and soldiers stationed near the border.
According to media reports, the Serbian government had previously sent armored vehicles to Kosovo.
KFOR patrols reinforced
The NATO-led Kosovo force KFOR said it had increased its routine patrols, including in northern Kosovo.
About a week ago the government of Kosovo relocated special police units to the north of the country, where mainly members of the minority ethnic Serbs live.
The majority of these do not recognize the authority of the ethnic Albanian-led government in Pristina.
The reason for the most recent escalation of the conflict is a dispute over Kosovar and Serbian license plates.
The Kosovar government had obliged motorists with Serbian license plates to put up provisional Kosovar license plates when entering Kosovo.
The regulation is a reaction to the fact that Serbia, for its part, does not recognize Kosovar license plates.
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Hundreds of ethnic Serbs have protested the regulation every day since the decree and used vehicles to obstruct traffic at the border crossings.
From Belgrade's point of view, Kosovar license plates imply an independent nation status.
Kosovo declared its independence in 2008.
The government in Belgrade still does not recognize it as an independent state.
Serbia's ally Russia does not either, unlike most Western countries, including the US and Germany.
The stationing of Kosovar special forces in the north of Kosovo had been viewed by Belgrade as a "provocation";
At the weekend, President Aleksandar Vucic warned NATO that Serbia would intervene in Kosovo if ethnic Serbs in Kosovo were seriously threatened.
Serbian planes fly over the border area
Vucic had units of the army and police put on heightened alert.
Serbian military planes flew over the area near the Kosovo border several times.
Defense Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic visited two military bases near the Kosovar border.
"Our army is not provoking, but it is ready to protect its people," said Stefanovic.
Meanwhile, the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama visited Kosovo on Monday and demonstratively stood behind the government in Pristina.
Rama described the recent moves of Belgrade as "theatrical military maneuvers".
Kosovo is "right" in the dispute with Serbia.
Both the EU and the US government called for de-escalation and a return to the normalization process.
Vucic had made a withdrawal of the Kosovar special forces from northern Kosovo a prerequisite for a continuation of the so-called normalization process.
The EU has been mediating in this format for around ten years.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected in Kosovo on Wednesday.
The tensions with Serbia could also come up at a Balkan summit of European heads of state and government on October 6th.
Serbia had already applied to join the EU at the end of 2009, but the negotiations are proving difficult.
slü / AFP / AP
