December 29 (SeeNews) - Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo, who have been blocking roads for more than two weeks, will start removing their barricades on Thursday, Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic said.
Tensions have been running high in the northern part of Kosovo after the arrest of a former policeman. According to local media, the policeman was released from prison and placed under house arrest on Wednesday.
"The removal of the barricades will begin tomorrow [Thursday] morning, it cannot be done in two hours, rather in 24 or 48 hours, the barricades will be removed but the mistrust remains," Vucic told a news conference late on Wednesday after meeting the protesters. "We need to talk and try to restore trust," Vucic said, as seen in a video from the news conference posted by Serbian public broadcaster RTS.
Ethnic Serbs have been protesting and blocking the roads to the border with Serbia for over two weeks with demands for the withdrawal of special units of the Kosovo police from northern Kosovo, the release of arrested Serbs, and the establishment of a Community of Serb Municipalities, as agreed by the governments of Kosovo and Serbia in 2013. Kosovo has closed three checkpoints on the border with Serbia due to these blockades since the protests started.
Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Belgrade does not recognise Kosovo's independence.