Russian aid convoy enters Kosovo after border row

A RUSSIAN aid convoy held up for days by a dispute between Serbia and Kosovo over control of part of their border passed into the former Serbian province today after a deal stipulating it would be escorted only by EU police.

Kosovo, 90 per cent ethnic Albanian, declared independence from Serbia in 2008. But Serbs dominate in a small swathe of the north bordering Serbia and continue to function as part of the Serbian state, resisting efforts by the Kosovo government to extend its authority. The row cost Serbia official candidate status for membership of the European Union last week.

About two dozen Russian trucks with 300 tonnes of aid for minority Serbs in north Kosovo crossed the Jarinje border checkpoint manned by European Union customs and police (EULEX) and NATO-led peacekeepers (KFOR), a Reuters witness said.

Escorted by three EULEX jeeps, the aid, along with an Orthodox Church icon from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, was handed over to the Serb Red Cross in the town of Zvecan.

“The sides agreed on the demand that only EULEX escorts the convoy, instead of KFOR and Kosovo (Albanian) police,” Serbian Orthodox bishop Teodosije said in a television broadcast.

Russia’s ambassador to Serbia, Aleksandar Konuzin, who led the convoy, previously refused to enter Kosovo via the Merdare crossing because it was controlled by the Kosovo Albanian government, which Belgrade and Moscow do not recognise.

The Jarinje border gate is one of two crossings at the heart of the dispute, which started in July when the Kosovo government sent police to take it over. Thirty German and Austrian KFOR soldiers were hurt by small arms fire and Molotov cocktails last month when they tried to remove a Serb roadblock.

Independent Kosovo has been recognised by more than 80 countries, including the United States and 22 of the EU’s 27 member states. 

 

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