Trucks with Serbian licence plates are banned from entering Kosovo following a dispute after the arrest of several Kosovan police officers.
Last week, Pristina announced it was blocking lorries with Serbian license plates from entering Kosovo over what it described as the false arrest of three Kosovan police officers by the Serbian authorities.
Truck drivers from Kosovo who can’t enter Serbia are protesting by blockading the border, hoping this will speed up Pristina’s decision to cancel the measure which prohibits the crossing of trucks with Serbian goods and trucks with Serbian license plates.
From Kraljevo to the Jarinje crossing, there are a total of 700 trucks with goods waiting to pass to the southern province.
Why are Serbia and Kosovo at odds?
Kosovo is a mainly ethnic Albanian populated territory that was formerly a province of Serbia. It declared independence in 2008.
Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo’s statehood and still considers it part of Serbia, even though it has no formal control there.
Kosovo’s independence has been recognised by about 100 countries, including the United States. Russia, China. And five EU countries, most of them with separatist regions of their own, have sided with Serbia. The deadlock has kept tensions simmering and prevented full stabilisation of the Balkan region after the bloody wars in the 1990s.