KOSOVO: United Nations persuade Serbs to remove two checkpoints inside border of newly independent Kosovo

Record ID: 699489

  • Title: KOSOVO: United Nations persuade Serbs to remove two checkpoints inside border of newly independent Kosovo
  • Date: 25th February 2008
  • Summary: (W4) ZUPCE, KOSOVO (FEBRUARY 24, 2008) (REUTERS) BLUE CONTAINER WITH KFOR APC IN BACKGROUND DANISH KFOR SOLDIER IN JEEP DANISH SOLDIERS AND JEEP PARKING NEXT TO CONTAINER SERBIAN CARS ARRIVING MAN LOOKING AT CHECKPOINT SERBIAN CRANE TRYING TO REMOVE CHECKPOINT MAN LOOKING THROUGH WINDOW OF CONTAINER SERBS ON ROAD CRANE TRYING TO LIFT CONTAINER UN VEHICLE WITH BURNING BUSH IN BACKGROUND DANISH SOLDIER WALKING WITH LADDER WITH KFOR CRANE ARRIVING KFOR SOLDIER ON CRANE ATTACHING LINE CONTAINER WIDE OF CONTAINER SOLDIER ON CONTAINER DANISH KFOR SOLDIER CRANE CONTROL CONTAINER BEING LIFTED PEOPLE BEHIND CONTAINER AS CONTAINER IS LIFTED SERB POLICEMAN WITH PEOPLE IN BACKGROUND FIRE TRUCK ARRIVING UNMIK MISSION WATCHING SCENE CONTAINER LEAVING ON TRUCK
  • Embargoed: 11th March 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVADWEJ6VRCOI5Z7IR5CR8I2Q57H
  • Story Text: For 24 hours, a blue portacabin topped with floodlights stood at the side of the road running north to the Kosovo-Serbia border, manned by Kosovo Serb police officers checking vehicles.
    The regional U.N. police chief negotiated with the local Serb authorities to have the cabin removed with the help of Danish NATO peacekeepers, watched by a crowd of agitated Serbs.
    One week after its Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia, there is a sense Kosovo is destined for partition, with the Serb-dominated north splitting away.
    If partition came, the frontier between the two sides would run where the portacabin was placed in Zupce.
    Another blue box was placed on the eastern edge of the Serb-dominated strip of northern Kosovo and later removed.
    Serbia has not said explicitly it wants to partition Kosovo, but in rejecting the province's secession it has promised to strengthen its grip on Serb areas, notably the north where just under half of the 120,000 Serbs live with their backs to Serbia.
    Kosovo's 90-percent Albanian majority rejects partition.
    The European Union is taking over supervision of Kosovo from the United Nations, which has run the territory since NATO went to war in 1999 to save its Albanians from Serb ethnic cleansing.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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