Kosovo pushes ahead with car licensing rule resisted by ethnic Serbs

Reuters:

PRISTINA/BELGRADE, Sept 1 – Kosovo, Serbia and NATO peacekeepers were bracing for a new wave of ethnic tensions on Thursday, hours after Pristina announced that some 50,000 ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo would have a two-month window to switch over their car license plates.

Kosovo, which is predominantly ethnic Albanian, has sought to compel ethnic Serbs to accept Pristina’s authority in routine bureaucratic matters since winning independence in 2008 after nearly a decade-long uprising against Serbia’s repressive rule.

In announcing the Oct. 31 deadline for motorists to switch over Serbian license plates to those issued by Pristina, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the decision as “nothing more or less than an expression of the exercise of sovereignty.”

On Wednesday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he did not believe an agreement with Kosovo over the issue was possible. “From Sept. 1 (Kosovo) will … try to force Serbs to change plates, … I don’t think they will have a big success,” he told reporters.

A push last year to implement the car licensing was met with protests by the Serbs in the north, who are backed by Belgrade and live close to Kosovo’s border with Serbia. Tensions flared again last month after Pristina announced the rule would go into effect on Sept. 1, prompting ethnic Serbs to set up roadblocks.

Tensions eased after Kurti, under U.S. and EU pressure, agreed to postpone the switch. The roadblocks were removed under the watch of NATO, which has about 3,700 peacekeepers in Kosovo.