Serbia Takes Kosovo Border Row to New York

As tensions fizz in the Serb-run sliver of North Kosovo, Belgrade has launched a diplomatic push aimed at forcing Kosovo to withdraw its customs officials from northern border crossings

Not even pouring rain has stopped local Serbs from manning barricades in the Serb-run north of Kosovo for the fifth day in a row, following last Friday's deployment of EU police and Kosovo customs officials on border crossings with Serbia.
Local Serbs vow that all major roads in the area will remain blocked until Kosovo government customs officers withdraw from the checkpoints. 
Their controversial deployment followed an EU-mediated "customs agreement" between Belgrade and Pristina talks in Brussels on September 2.
But Belgrade insists that the agreement applies only to the design of Kosovo customs stamps and does not imply a green light for the deployment of Kosovo customs staff on the border crossings with Serbia.
Instead of continuing negotiations with Pristina, Belgrade has turned to international Brussels and New York to fight for its interpretation of the border deal.
Serbia intends to "show representatives of international community that Kosovo customs officials cannot be on the border crossings," a source from the government told Balkan Insight.
Belgrade has already submitted a proposal to Brussels on how the situation at the border crossings of Jarinje and Brnjak might be solved.
Serbia is meanwhile applying its muscle in New York, where a Serbian delegation, led by President Boris Tadic, has been attending the UN General Assembly.
Tadic is expected to meet the EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, this week at the session and urge Brussels, which has remained silent on the issue, to help resolving the issue.
Serbia wants international tax collectors, appointed in accordance with UN Resolution 1244, to return to the border checkpoints and customs revenue points at Gates 1 and 31.
The 1999 UN resolution authorised the UN to take control of the former Serbian province and in the eyes of Serbia it remains the accepted authority. Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's independence, proclaimed in 2008.
Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, who is also part of the delegation to New York, is expected to hold bilateral meetings with the foreign ministers of about 30 countries, including Germany, Russia, Spain, Greece, Romania, Cyprus, Turkey, Algeria and others.
According to the Ministry, Jeremic has also organised a working breakfast for foreign ministers of member states of regional initiatives of which Serbia is a member, such as the Central European Initiative, the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe and the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative.
Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia mounted in late July when Kosovo police tried to seize control of the two border crossings at Jarinje and Brnjak, which NATO's KFOR troops had controlled since Kosovo declared independence in 2008.
On September 2, Belgrade and Pristina, in the sixth round of EU-mediated talks, reached an agreement on customs allowing for the restoration of free movement of goods between Kosovo and Serbia.
Following the agreement, Kosovo government unveiled a plan, put in force last Friday, according to which Kosovo customs officials and EU border police would be present on the Kosovo-Serbia border.
According to the plan, Kosovo's authorities would have overall authority at the crossings but would be supervised by EU rule-of-law, EULEX, police.