Residents of the village of Priluzje near Vucitrn in north-eastern Kosovo late Tuesday formed a crisis staff that decided local Serbs would continue staging protests against the construction of the bridge across the Sitnica River.

The bridge is supposed to connect this village of the Vucitrn municipality with the villages at the foot of Mount Cicavica populated solely by ethnic Albanians who would thus be able to get to the Pristina-Mitrovica road through Priluzje.

President of the Serb Vucitrn municipality Zoran Rakic told Tanjug that the crisis staff had decided local Serbs would continue staging protests against the construction of the bridge.

“We intend to stop the construction of the bridge and are considering several options regarding providing security,” Rakic said.

Several hundred Serbs gathered on the road leading to the Sitnica bridge construction site to protest against the construction works for the second day. People from Priluzje do not want the Albanians from the neighboring villages to pass through their village because of fear of possible provocations and incidents.

Reacting to the protests, Buehler earlier announced that he was ready to secure constant presence of KFOR in that area for security reasons.

Priluzje counts around 2,500 Serbs, while the villages across the Sitnica have several thousand Albanians in total. A former bridge across the Sitnica River was destroyed during the 1999 Kosovo conflict.