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POLITICS-KOSOVO-SERBIE
Protestors block route of Serbian leader on Kosovo trip
MITROVICA, Kosovo, Sept 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Hundreds of Kosovar Albanians
blocked access to a village due to be visited by Serbian President Aleksandar
Vucic Sunday, an AFP journalist said, as a festering row over Kosovo
independence clouds hopes that the war foes can normalise relations.
Demonstrators used vehicles and tree trunks to create a barricade on the
main road between Mitrovica, in the north of Kosovo, and the village of
Banje, a Serbian enclave some 60 kilometres (40 miles) away.
“Vucic does not pass” and “Those who committed genocide against innocent
civilians cannot pass” read messages on placards at the blockade, which
according to Serbian state television RTS was one of five set up by
protesters to cut off all road access to Banje.
Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo, an Albanian-majority former southern
province that broke away from the then Yugoslav republic in a bloody war in
1998-1999 and declared independence a decade later.
According to RTS, Vucic’s route was blocked by former members of the Kosovo
Liberation Army, the pro-independence guerrilla movement that fought Serb
armed forces in the conflict.
The Serbian president is making a two-day visit to Kosovo, just days after
planned talks with Kosovo president Hashim Thaci in Brussels under EU
auspices fell apart at the last minute.
The talks have been stalled for months but started generating attention in
recent months after Thaci and Vucic signalled an openness to the idea of
border changes to resolve their longstanding differences over Kosovo’s
independence.
The presidents have not laid out any detailed plans but the talk has
alarmed critics, who say redrawing the map of the Balkans could wreak havoc
in a fragile region scarred by war.
Vucic is due to speak at a public event later Sunday in Serb-majority
Mitrovica.
Serbia needs a deal with Pristina to move forward in EU accession talks,
while Kosovo is hoping that recognition from Belgrade that would unlock its
path into the United Nations.
Kosovo is recognised by more than 110 countries, but outliers include
Russia, China and five EU countries, including Spain, which does not want to
set an independence precedent for its own regions.
BSS/AFP/GMR/1505 hrs