Kosovo Int Min: Pristina accepts KFOR offer, Serbs refuse

Xhelal Sfeçla, Kosovo's Interior Minister, said on Tuesday Pristina accepted an offer from NATO-led KFOR but added the Serbs refused it.

Speaking to reporters, Sfeçla said the Kosovo Special Police unit was not deployed to jeopardise the people's interest but to protect border crossings and those managing them.

He said that KFOR offered to replace the Special police unit in monitoring the crossings but that the Serbs manning the barricades for the ninth day in a row rejected the offer.

Sfeçla said the Serbs' refusal revealed a political goal as their real intention.

Serbs from Kosovo's north set up barricades claiming Pristina measure about the temporary license plates for vehicles from Serbia was meant to curb the freedom of movement although Belgrade had been demanding the same for the vehicles with Kosovo plates entering Serbia for years.
He added the barricades that followed Pristina's reciprocal decision to demand the provisional license plates for vehicles crossing from Serbia strengthened Serbia's authorities and their parallel structures in Kosovo rhetorics in describing the Special police's presence repression.

"KFOR offered additional engagement and secured the border crossings. We said the barricades' withdrawal would make the Special police presence unnecessary. Still, the extremists rejected it," Sfeçla told the joint news conference with his Austrian counterpart Karl Nehammer in Pristina.