Pristina - NATO-led peacekeepers have closed two border
crossings with Serbia on Tuesday and stepped up its presence in the
are owing to an 'escalating situation' on the other side, police said
in Pristina.
The peacekeepers from the KFOR mission took control over the
crossings from the Kosovo and international police, shortly before
noon, spokesman Veton Elshani told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
'There are two border crossings in northern Kosovo which are
closed, at Janjine and Leposavic, due to the very serious situation
which is escalating there,' Elshani said.
One of the crossing points the Serbian side was torched and the
other one blown up in an explosion.
'Police has completely withdrawn from the places and KFOR is in
charge now,' Elshani said.
KFOR has sent reinforcement in the north, KFOR spokesman, Colonel
Bertrand Bonneau, told dpa.
'We are reinforcing in northern Kosovo after these two incidents,'
he said. 'We have set up checkpoints in the area and we will use all
necessary means to put the situation under control.'
KFOR has also started to evacuate the international and Kosovo
police officers which took shelter in a nearby tunnel, the KFOR
spokesperson said.
'We have started evacuating (the police officers) by helicopter
but also with our armoured vehicles,' a French KFOR commander told
dpa.
He also said that a 'convoy of around 70 vehicles, including 10
buses, had passed the frontier and entered Kosovo,' at the time of
the attacks on the two border crossing points, but were stopped later
by UN police.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on Sunday
and was already recognized by several countries, including the United
States.
The split of what Serbs regard as their heartland soil, which
today is dominated by a 90-per-cent majority, has spurred violent
protests in Belgrade and other Serbian cities over the past two days.
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