BELGRADE, December 12. /TASS/. Petar Petkovic, Director of the Serbian government’s office for Kosovo and Metohija has called on Europe to pay attention to the guns in the hands of Kosovo policemen in northern Kosovo.
"Europe, do you see the long guns in the north?! Europe, do you see special forces above the hospital? While Serbs on barricades are fighting for bare survival, [Prime Minister of the unrecognized republic of Kosovo Albin] Kurti is sending ROSU (regional operation support units - TASS) to the north with fingers on the trigger!" he wrote on his Twitter account.
The situation in Kosovo was aggravated dramatically on December 6, when the Kosovo police along with EULEX (European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) patrols began to seize premises housing electoral commissions in northern Kosovo and Metohija. Local Serbs repelled the Kosovars, who fled across the Ibar River. Two days later, on December 8, around 350 Kosovo policemen in armored cars intruded into the Serb-inhabited northern Kosovo and blocked the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica. On December 10, the Kosovo police detained Dejan Pantic, a former Serbian policeman, on dubious charges. In response, the Serb population erected barricades along a highway in several locations and took to the streets in protest.
KFOR (a NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo) 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.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on December 10 that his country planned to issue a request to KFOR to deploy 1,000 Serbian law enforcement officers to Kosovo and Metohija in accordance with UN Security Council resolution 1244.