What started as a handball match between Serbia and the protectorate of Kosovo, followed by an official visit by Serbian delegation in Kosovo has quickly escalated into major tensions between the administrative border of Kosovo and Serbia.
Kosovo has deployed police forces to a border crossing, however deputy commander of Kosovo police in the north has denied that a special unit, “Rosu,” had been deployed to this area, KoSSev website is reporting Monday.
According to Besim Hoti, an intervention police unit from the same region was sent to carry out “the operative plan” to ban the planned arrival of several Serbian officials to the territory of the self-proclaimed state.
Hoti added that he had information this would be a three-member delegation that would include the director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Djuric.
But later in the day, KoSSev claimed that Rosu members had been deployed at Jarinje, while Pristina-based Koha said 200 of them were in northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica.
And while Hoti did not specify who the other two officials are, media in Belgrade said they were Serbian president’s general secretary Nikola Selakovic, and Culture Miniter Vladan Vukosavljevic, while media in Pristina think they are defense and interior ministers Aleksandar Vulin and Nebojsa Stefanovic.
Tanjug reported that it learned Pristina authorities had banned Vulin from entering. The minister was on his way to visit the Vucetic family in Kosovska Mitrovica, whose two children were injured when an explosive device was thrown at their home in 2013.
Vehicle checks and Kosovo Police presence were stepped up at the Jarinje administrative crossing on Monday, the agency said, adding that Pristina had announced it would not allow Marko Djuric and Nikola Selakovic, to enter Kosovo and Metohija.
At around 11:00 hours CET, Kosovo police prevented Vukosavljevic from entering Kosovo via the administrative crossing of Jarinje. The culture minister was to visit Serbian medieval Orthodox Monasteries in Kosovo and Metohija this Monday, and on Tuesday.
Kosovo police claimed in a statement later in the day that Vukosavljevi had the permission to enter Kosovo, “but decided not to and turned back” from the administrative line crossing.
