For nearly three months, ethnic Serbs have been blocking main roads to stop ethnic Albanian authorities from stretching their control over the Serb-run territory. Serbs refuse to work with Kosovo officials and consider the region a part of Serbia, despite Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.
The international troops originally requested that the 16 barricades consisting of rocks and mud be removed over the weekend. They later extended the deadline first to Monday and then to early Tuesday.
Slavisa Ristic, a Kosovo Serb official, said Serbs won’t remove the barricades because they want to defend “their country and the future of our children.”
He said that peacekeepers may try to remove the road blocks by force after the deadline expires. “We will sit here peacefully, and we won’t allow them to do so,” Ristic said.
The 5,500-strong peacekeeping force, known as KFOR, said it wants to establish freedom of movement in the region as well as to reopen the supply routes for its troops in the area.
On Monday, KFOR soldiers in the divided town of Mitrovica handed out leaflets warning people “not to participate in activities which may endanger their safety.”
The leaflets have a picture of a barricade with a Serb flag.
