The barricades were erected on December 10 in response to the arrest of a former Serbian policeman
Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo appear to have eased after the decision to remove roadblocks near a major border crossing.
And Serbs in Kosovo began building checkpoints in the north of the country on December 10 to protest the arrest of a former Serbian policeman.
The decision to raise the barricades came after protesters held late-night talks with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Vucic warned, however, that distrust of Kosovo’s Serb minority remains high.
This step comes just days after the Serbian military announced it was at the “peak levels of combat readiness” amid rising tensions with Kosovo.
Kosovo, which is overwhelmingly Albanian, broke away from Serbia after the 1998-1999 war.
Serbia does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state, nor the Serbs living there.
Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have gone up and down since Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008.
But these tensions have increased especially in recent months, with the withdrawal of the Serbian minority from any form of cooperation with the Kosovar authorities.
The spark of the tension was a dispute over car registration plates, as the government in Pristina demanded the Serbs hand over the registration plates of Serbian-issued vehicles, which they continued to use, so they could be replaced with “Republic of Kosovo” those.
However, few people complied with the order before the deadline, and Pristina’s plan to fine those who disagreed triggered mass resignations of Serbs from all of Kosovo’s national institutions last November.
These included police officers, with over 600 Serbs handing over their badges.
Attempts by the European Union, NATO – which has peacekeeping forces deployed in Kosovo – and the United States to broker a solution to the crisis have failed to achieve a diplomatic breakthrough.
Then, earlier this month, a former Serbian police officer, Dejan Pantik, was arrested on suspicion of attacking Kosovo forces, further escalating tensions.
A Kosovo judge on Wednesday ordered Pantek’s release.
In response to the decision to dismantle the barricades, Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabić on Thursday thanked the Serbs in Kosovo for “finding the strength to respond to the brutal aggression and terror”.
But he added that he did not believe that removing the barriers would mean ending what he described as “provocations” by Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
No official response has yet been released regarding the removal of the barriers by the government in Pristina.
