Representatives of local-self governments in northern Kosovo said that KFOR Commander demanded from them Saturday to ensure that free movement of soldiers in the north of the province was possible by Monday.

Heads of the municipalities of Zvecan, Leposavic, Kosovska Mitrovica and Zubin Potok told German general Erhard Drews that they would respond to the KFOR request on Wednesday, after a joint meeting in Zubin Potok of representatives of the four Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo.

Head of the Kosovska Mitrovica Krstimir Pantic told Tanjug that the municipal representatives had called on the KFOR commander not to take any action before the joint session of the four north Kosovo municipalities' representatives.

“Drews demanded freedom of movement for his soldiers as early as on Monday, which we cannot make happen. We asked him to wait until after the Wednesday joint session in Zubin Potok. We explained to him that we cannot possibly ensure the removal of roadblocks by Monday and that we therefore cannot be held responsible if something goes wrong,” Pantic told Tanjug.

The Saturday meeting between Drews and the heads of the four Serb municipalities in northern Kosovo, held at the KFOR Camp Nothing Hill near Leposavic, lasted over two hours.

Head of the Zvecan municipality Dragisa Milovic told Tanjug Drews presented several demands, but did not want to go into details, saying just that the municipal representatives would discuss the demands at the session on Wednesday.

Milovic explained that KFOR requested freedom of movement for its troops in the north as it could no longer transport soldiers by helicopter, so roads had to be cleared to make it possible to deliver food, water and energy resources to the mission's soldiers located at the administrative crossings Brnjak and Jarinje.

KFOR said in a release that Commander Erhard Drews had demanded from representatives of local self-government in northern Kosovo to unconditionally remove all roadblocks leading to the administrative crossings in northern Kosovo.

Today's meeting between General Drews and the municipal representatives took place at the initiative of the local self-governments in northern Kosovo.