Vucic: Serbs in Northern Kosovo Will Start Removing Barricades on Thursday Morning

MOSCOW (Sputnik/Prime) - Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday that Serbs in northern Kosovo will start removing barricades on Thursday morning.

"It is a long process. It will take a while," Vucic said after meeting Serbs from northern Kosovo in the Serbian town of Raska, as quoted by Reuters.

On December 10, Serbs in the north of Kosovo began setting up barricades in protest against the arrest of several Serb police officers by the Kosovar authorities over alleged war crimes and terrorism dating back to the 1998-1999 conflict.

On December 11, Vucic held a national security council meeting and accused Kosovo of violating existing agreements after Kurti urged the NATO-led regional contingent to dismantle road barricades erected by Serbs in Kosovo, whose independence Serbia and dozens of other countries never recognized. Kurti warned that if the mission refused to step in, Kosovo's security forces would carry out the operation themselves.

Serbs in the north of Kosovo mounted new barricades on key roads to and from Serbia earlier this week. Several days prior, Kosovar police said the Jarinje and Brnjak border checkpoints were closed due to barricades.

On Wednesday, former policeman Dejan Pantic, whose arrest spurred another wave of protests by Kosovo's Serb minority, was released from custody and put under house arrest.