Thirty-one police officers and more than 20 protesters were injured in clashes between the Kosovo police and members of the Kosovo Albanian movement Self-Determination near Podujevo in northeast Kosovo, on a road leading to the border crossing Merdare on the border with Serbia, the Belgrade media reported.
Kosovo police spokesman Baki Kelani said that 146 people were arrested near Podujevo and near the border crossing Bijela Zemlja, and that 31 police officers and more than 20 protesters were injured.
The Kosovo police dismissed as untrue reports carried by the media earlier in the day that the leader of the Self-Determination movement, Albin Kurti, was among those arrested. Kurti was not arrested but was injured during the police intervention and he was given medical help, after which he joined the protesters again, it was said.
Protests were staged also near the border crossing of Bijela Zemlja in east Kosovo on a road leading to the southern Serbian municipality of Bujanovac, but no clashes were reported. The police prevented the protesters from reaching the border crossing.
In a statement released on the web site of the Office of the Kosovo Prime Minister, the Kosovo government expressed regret at the violent actions of the Self-Determination movement directed against the Kosovo police, calling on the movement's leaders to refrain from violence and from obstructing freedom of movement.
The government also expressed strong support to the police in maintaining control over the situation.
The state secretary of the Serbian Ministry for Kosovo, Oliver Ivanovic, told the B92 broadcaster that today's clashes in Kosovo would not have a direct impact on the ongoing dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. The media said the situation on the ground was slowly calming and that vehicles could be seen arriving in Podujevo after passing the Merdare border crossing.
The Self-Determination movement previously announced that it would stage on Saturday a peaceful blockade of the Merdare and Bijela Zemlja border crossings in order to make the Kosovo government implement a resolution adopted by the parliament last December envisaging full reciprocity in trade with Serbia.
Announcing the border blockade, Kurti said that reciprocity was an EU value and that EU countries mutually recognised one another and developed relations on the basis of reciprocity. There is no example in the world of free trade between two countries which do not have a peace agreement and do not recognise one another, Kurti said, adding the blockade was directed politically against Serbia and not against the Serbs in general, or against the Kosovo Serbs.
