Serbia, KFOR draft deal on Kosovo border crisis

Serbian representatives and NATO's Kosovo force (KFOR) signed a draft agreement on a resolution of the border crisis in northern Kosovo, national media reported on Thursday. The agreement was signed by KFOR Commander, General Erhard Buhler, Chief Negotiator Borislav Stefanovic and Minister Goran Bogdanovic on Wednesday. They also discussed the present situation in northern Kosovo at KFOR camp Nothing Hill. Under the deal, KFOR will retain command and control of the Jarjine and Brnjak/Bernjak crossing points until mid-September 2011. "If necessary this time frame could be extended," the document says. Cars, trucks of up to 3.5 tons and vehicles with humanitarian goods including food may pass after an identity check and a search for weapons. "Road blocks will be removed and freedom of movement will be reestablished," the agreement says. Chief Negotiator Borislav Stefanovic and Minister Goran Bogdanovic will coordinate the agreement with the president of Serbia and other authorities involved on the Serbian side. The KFOR mission currently has around 6,000 soldiers on the ground. Kosovo sent special police forces to its Serbian-populated north last Monday to enforce a ban on imports from Serbia, but local Serbs opposed the move. Special units came under attack from local Serbs as they pulled out in the direction of the northern town of Mitrovica. Serbs in northern Kosovo are the biggest non-Albanian community remaining in the country following the 1998-99 Kosovan war of independence.