PRISTINA, Feb 20: Nato-led peacekeeping forces in Kosovo on Wednesday blamed Serb leaders for arson attacks on two border checkpoints by gangs of Serbs angry about Kosovo’s independence.

The border crossings at Banja and Jarinje remained sealed after at least 1,000 Serbs from Kosovo and Serbia on Tuesday ransacked and torched both sites, two days after Kosovo unilaterally declared independence.

“Some local leaders took a huge responsibility yesterday (Tuesday),” said Gen Xavier Bout de Marnhac, the commander of Nato-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) peacekeepers.

“The leaders should think deeply of their responsibility when they trigger this type of demonstration,” said the French general.

While not naming names, De Marnhac said the ringleaders could be discerned by watching video images of the incident on Serbian television. “You will know what I am talking about.” In statements on Tuesday, KFOR and the UN mission that has administered Kosovo since 1999 said the two border crossings would remain closed for 24 hours.

Others, including those into Albania and Macedonia, stayed open.

“Kosovo is not closed. Other gates are not closed,” said Joachim Ruecker, the German head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), which still oversees Kosovo’s borders.

Hardline Kosovo Serb leader Milan Ivanovic hit back at the accusations, saying “the accusations are ridiculous, but I am not surprised, we have been accused before.

“The KFOR commander acts as a servant of US interests and has taken upon himself a role which he does not have, which is the role of prosecutor and judge,” he said.

“The KFOR commander and UNMIK chief have brought about the occupation of Kosovo, they made Kosovo into a concentration camp although it was already a ghetto.

“They don’t respect UN Security Council Resolution 1244,” he said in reference to the 1999 resolution that gave ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo “substantial autonomy” under Serbian sovereignty.

“They failed to provide security and safety for the Serbian people in Kosovo and everything they do is in order to create an ethnic Albanian state in Kosovo,” added Ivanovic.

De Marnhac made his remarks after a meeting in Kosovo’s capital Pristina with Kosovo’s President Fatmir Sejdiu and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, who sought to play down the most serious violent incident since independence.

“The incident was isolated and without any impact vis-a-vis the reality in Kosovo, where the citizens are continuing their normal life,” said Thaci, whose newly founded state is dominated by ethnic Albanians.

De Marnhac, with 17,000 troops from more than 30 countries under his command, said it was not his intention to deploy more troops to the two crossing points, over and above the ones rushed there on Tuesday. “I just want everybody to be fully aware of my determination to maintain and restore a safe and secure environment everywhere in Kosovo,” he said.

“Nobody should have any doubts about that determination.” In a statement, Kosovo police said on Wednesday that between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, “no incidents were recorded that would be interesting for the public.”

—AFP