BELGRADE, December 12. /TASS/. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Monday that Belgrade is sparing no effort to preserve peace and stability in Kosovo and Metohija.
"As for peace, we are doing our utmost. Yesterday we worked all day until we received guarantees that [the international missions] will not remove any barricades. Once again, we call for releasing innocent Serbs and we ask not to send heavily armed Kosovo police to the northern areas. They have no right to do this under any agreement," he told journalists.
He also called on the Serbs not to attack KFOR (a NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo) and EULEX (European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) employees.
On December 10, the Kosovo police detained Dejan Pantic, a former Serbian policeman, at the Jarinje checkpoint on the administrative border between Kosovo and Metohija, and central Serbia. In response, the Serb population erected barricades along a highway in several locations near the checkpoint and took to the streets in protest. KFOR and EULEX patrols were deployed to the barricades.
Later in the day, Prime Minister of the unrecognized republic of Kosovo Albin Kurti demanded the Serbs remove the barricades by Sunday evening, warning that otherwise, the police would be sent out.