Serbia sends military chief to Kosovo border as tensions rise
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic dispatched the army chief on Sunday night to the border with Kosovo, General Milan Mojsilovic himself announced, as strained relations between the two countries were exacerbated by recent blockades, AFP reports.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade refuses to recognise the move and encourages the remaining 120,000 Serbs to defy Pristina's authority. Hundreds of ethnic Serbs, outraged over the arrest of an ex-police officer, set up roadblocks on December 10 in Serb-majority northern Kosovo which have paralysed traffic through two border crossings. "The situation there is complicated and complex," the Serbian army chief said in an interview with local news channel Pink TV on Sunday. "It requires in the coming period the presence of the Serbian army along the administrative line," he said, using the term Belgrade uses for the border with Kosovo. The general added that he was on his way to Raska, a town about 10 kilometres (six miles) from the border with Kosovo after meeting with Vucic in Belgrade.
