KFOR Reportedly Tightens Security at Checkpoint in Northern Kosovo Over Rallying Serbs

BELGRADE (Sputnik) - NATO-led peacekeeping mission Kosovo Force (KFOR) boosted security at the closed Jarinje border crossing between Serbia and breakaway Kosovo due to a mass gathering of local Serbs on the Serbian side, local media reported on Sunday.

A few hundred people carrying flags gathered near the non-functioning checkpoint in the Serbian border town of Raska at around 1 p.m. local time (12:00 GMT) with the encouragement of Serbian youth groups. The organizers used social media to invite participants from Serbia, Montenegro and Republika Srpska of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The gathering was held under the slogan "There will never be a border, Kosovo is Serbia."

According to local media, KFOR scaled up its presence in the area on Sunday night.

"We noticed over 15 HUMMER [HMMWV] vehicles and several KFOR trucks on rural bypass roads tonight," residents told the news portal.

KFOR reportedly set up a barbed wire fence and used SUVs to block the road a few dozen meters further from the Jarinje border crossing. Other HMMWVs could be seen in the distance, Kosovo online news outlet said.

Jarinje checkpoint on the administrative line between Central Serbia and Kosovo

© Sputnik / Gavro Dešić

The situation in Kosovo and Metohija remains tense. Police in the region said Tuesday that the Jarinje and Brnjak checkpoints at the exit to central Serbia remain closed, allegedly because "barricades on the highways hinder the movement of traffic and goods."

On December 10, Serbs in the northern part of Kosovo began setting up barricades in protest against the arrest of Dejan Pantic, a former police officer in Kosovo who quit his post in mid-November and was arrested by the Kosovar authorities at the Jarinje border crossing on suspicion of "terrorism."

On December 11, Serbian President Alexandar Vucic held a Security Council meeting and accused Kosovo of violating the existing agreements after Kosovar authorities leader Albin Kurti urged KFOR to dismantle road barricades erected by local Serbs in the north of the breakaway region. Kurti also noted that if the mission refused to step in, Kosovo's own security forces would carry out this operation themselves.