UN urges restraint over north Kosovo border gates

Mr Ban Ki Moon, UN Secretary-General

Kosovo flag

UN urges restraint over north Kosovo border gates

UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon has urged Kosovo and Serbia to avoid actions that could worsen tensions in northern Kosovo as NATO prepares to hand over authority over border gates.

Ban's remarks came ahead of the meeting of UN Security Council on the issue of the border posts as requested by Serbia and Russia.

The UN is to hand over authority of the gates to EU and Kosovo officials.
Western diplomats on the council said the 15-nation body was unlikely to take any action.

Escalating conflict

Ban said he was concerned about escalating rhetoric coming out of Serbia and Kosovo over the border gates.

Kosovo tried in July to install police and customs officers at the two crossings on its border with Serbia but armed Serbs drove them back, burning down one border gate in the process.

NATO's 6,000-strong peacekeeping force (KFOR) says it will act to stop any violence.

Belgrade does not recognise Kosovo’s February 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia.

Serbian Foreign Minister, Vuk Jeremic, in a letter to the Lebanese President of the Security Council, Ambassador Nawaf Salam, suggested that the EU police and justice mission (EULEX) and KFOR were colluding with Kosovo.

Jeremic in the letter told the Security Council that Belgrade had received information that KFOR and EULEX intended to facilitate the transfer of authority over Gates 1 and 31 to Kosovo.

“This would constitute grave violations of their respective status-neutral mandates under Security Council resolution 1244", Jeremic said

Misconception

Security Council diplomats said both Kosovo and Serbia were misrepresenting an EU-brokered agreement on Gates 1 and 31 in northern Kosovo, a majority-Serb enclave of the otherwise predominantly Albanian region.

Kosovo officials have said they will be taking over control of the gates from NATO, view Serbian officials have echoed.

Council diplomats said on condition of anonymity that EULEX would take over the crossings with a minimal and ``low key'' presence of Kosovo customs and police officers.

“It's a misrepresentation of what has been agreed, EULEX will take the lead from KFOR'', the diplomats said.

Implementation of agreement

Ban urged Kosovo and Belgrade to continue the European Union-facilitated dialogue and build on its successes so far, and to take the practical steps toward implementation of the agreements reached so far.

“I also urge them to prevent confrontation and violence in northern Kosovo", he added.

Belgrade lost control over Kosovo in 1999, when NATO launched a bombing campaign to halt Serb atrocities and ethnic cleansing in a counter-insurgency war under then Yugoslav strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

Since 2008, the new state of around 1.7 million mostly ethnic Albanians has been recognised by more than 80 countries, including the US and most of the EU, but Russian opposition has prevented it from joining the UN.

Reuters/Chiamaka/Ekata