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In this photograph made available by the Serbian presidency, a Kosovo police officer talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, left, to say that he can not continue his trip to the village of Banje to Zubin Potok, Kosovo, Sunday, September 9, 2018. Kosovo Albanians burned tires and blocked roads with logs, trucks and heavy machinery on a road planned by the Serbian president who is visiting Serbs in the former Serbian province (Serbian Presidency via AP).
MITROVICA, Kosovo – The latest news on tensions between Kosovo and Serbia (still local):
11:55
NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo say security of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic during a visit to Kosovo is not threatened despite roadblocks that prevented his visit to a Serb-populated village .
KFOR, which is the acronym for the force, said Sunday in a statement that she was working with the Kosovo authorities to peacefully suppress the blockade around the village of Banje.
According to the statement, "no one threatens Mr. Vucic and his security is guaranteed". He added that "KFOR is doing it peacefully, but it is ready to intervene if necessary".
In Belgrade, Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said the guarantee of the visit to Banje was "important for the credibility of the international community" in Kosovo.
NATO deployed to Kosovo in 1999.
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11:45
The Serbian president telephoned the Serbs in a central Kosovo village after the Kosovo Albanians blocked the roads and prevented him from getting there.
Dozens of people from Banje village lined up on Sunday while Aleksandar Vucic told them, "I'm really sorry I can not come because the Pristina authorities did not want me to do it.
Vucic later criticized NATO-led peacekeeping forces for failing to block the blockade. Vucic said the Kosovo Albanian authorities were behind the blockade "so that they could show, as little children, that this must be as Pristina officials want it to be".
Vucic planned to travel to Banje as part of a two-day visit to Serb-populated areas in Kosovo, a former Serb province that declared independence in 2008. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence.
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10:15
Kosovo Albanians blocked roads and burned tires on a road planned by the Serbian president who is visiting Serbs in the former Serbian province.
Aleksandar Vucic planned to visit a populated Serb village in central Kosovo on Sunday, but roads leading to the area were blocked by logs, trucks and heavy machinery.
Serbian media said that gunshots could also be heard, but that these reports could not be verified independently. Vucic was not attacked.
Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic blamed the blockade on former Kosovo Liberation Army soldiers who fought Serbian troops in Kosovo during the 1998-99 independence war. .
The conflict ended with a NATO intervention that forced Serbia to withdraw from Kosovo. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008, which Serbia does not recognize.
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