PRISTINA -- Kosovar authorities have paused issuing documents to Serbs entering the country after agreeing to delay implementation of two regulations regarding automobile license plates and travel papers for visitors from Serbia after consultations with U.S. and European Union representatives.
The pause came after local Serbs in northern Kosovo agreed to remove all the barricades that were put on the roads leading to two border crossing points with Serbia.
Barricades set up at border crossings by ethnic Serbs in Kosovo were being removed on August 1 as the first documents of the Internal Affairs Ministry of Kosovo for entry and exit for citizens of Serbia were issued at the border crossings with Serbia that had opened.
Under the agreement, reached in the early hours of August 1, there will be a delay of 30 days in the new regulations.
"As we promised last night, as the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, by removing barricades and ensuring freedom of movement for our citizens, we moved the implementation of the decisions to September 1, 2022, in order to maintain stability in the country and the region", Kosovar Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla confirmed on Facebook.
Svecla also confirmed that two border crossings in the northern part of Kosovo opened for traffic after all road blockages were removed.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti said earlier that he expected that barricades at the two border crossings, Jarinje and Brnjak, would be removed during the day on August 1.
RFE/RL journalists confirmed that in Rudare, a town near the Jarinje border crossing, the removal of vehicles that had been placed as barricades on the roads in the north of Kosovo has begun.
However, two border crossings in the north, Jarinje and Brnjak, remain closed for traffic because, according to Prime Minister Albin Kurti, "the roads leading there are still blocked." He added that there had been a total of nine barricades erected and clearing them will take time.
"We expect that during today they will all be removed," Kurti said.
SEE ALSO: Belgrade Doles Out Deals To Firms Despite U.S. Sanctions For Alleged Crime TiesLate on July 31, U.S. Ambassador to Pristina Jeffrey Hovenier had urged Kosovo to postpone implementation of the regulations for 30 days "because there seems to be disinformation and misunderstanding of these decisions."
The Kosovar government had said that starting on August 1 travelers arriving from Serbia would have their Serbia-issued documents exchanged for new entry-exit identification documents issued by Pristina, valid for three months.
The policy matches a long-standing practice in place by Belgrade for Kosovo citizens visiting Serbia.
The move triggered riots by minority Serbs who put up roadblocks, sounded air raid sirens and fired their guns into the air.
The Kosovo government had accused neighboring Serbia of instigating the riots in order to destabilize the country that declared independence in 2008 after a NATO intervention that stopped Serbia’s bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999.
"We hope that we will work with this government and colleagues from the European Union to ensure that these agreements are better understood and thus lower tensions," Hovenier added.
The NATO-led mission in Kosovo also said on July 31 that it was monitoring the "tense" situation in the northern municipalities and that it was "prepared to intervene if stability is jeopardized."
Ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo have been using car plates issued by Serbian institutions since the war in 1999 with acronyms of Kosovo cities, such as KM (Kosovska Mitrovica), PR (Pristina), or UR (Urosevac).
The government in Kosovo regards the plates as illegal but has tolerated them in four northern municipalities with Serb majorities.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo’s independence nor its right to impose rules and regulations such as registering cars and trucks. Most EU countries recognize Kosovo, though Russia and China, allies of Serbia, do not.
The EU has tried to broker a dialogue between the two Balkans neighbors for over a decade, but so far the efforts have failed to achieve a normalization of ties.
Kurti has said Kosovo will formally apply to become a member of the European Union by the end of 2022 despite concerns over tensions with Serbia, also an EU aspirant.