NATO moves against Serb roadblocks in Kosovo north

A NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) soldier from France stands guard in front of barricades at the closed Serbia-Kosovo border crossing of Brnjak October 19, 2011.

JAGNJENICA, Kosovo (Reuters) - NATO troops in Kosovo fired teargas to disperse hundreds of Serbs blocking a contested border crossing with Serbia Thursday, and used armored vehicles in a bid to remove makeshift barriers.

German and Austrian troops in full riot gear moved to dismantle the roadblock near the village of Jagnjenica, just outside the town of Zubin Potok, about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital Pristina, a Reuters eyewitness said.

The Kosovo Serbs, who do not recognize Kosovo's 2008 independence declaration from Serbia, put up barricades on two disputed border points Brnjak and Jarinje with Serbia in July, when Kosovo's ethnic Albanian-dominated government tried to take them over.

After using loudspeakers to warn protesters to disperse, NATO's KFOR infantry moved from the Brnjak border crossing and ousted dozens of Serbs from a nearby roadblock without violence.

Peacekeepers also deployed about 80 armored vehicles, trucks and bulldozers near a separate roadblock on another road leading to the Brnjak border post.

"We are continuing our operation and we hope that the people will stay calm as until now," said a NATO spokesperson in Pristina. He said eight peacekeepers were slightly injured in sporadic scuffles with Serbs in the area.

Local health officials said more than a dozen Serbs were treated for minor injuries and the effects of teargas.

In Belgrade, Serb President Boris Tadic urged Kosovo Serbs to remain peaceful and NATO to refrain from the use of force.

"Local (Serb) leaders should work only in the best interest of people," Tadic said in a statement. "Some political leaders are using this issue for their ... agendas ahead of future elections," he said.

"Under no circumstances should the people (in Kosovo's north) resort to violence as that would lead to an abyss."

Serbia faces parliamentary elections in 2012 and Kosovo, cherished by Serbs as their historic heartland, will play high on the agenda.

Tadic's remarks signaled a rift between Belgrade and Kosovo Serb hardliners and came after ethnic Serb mayors and community leaders from northern Kosovo Wednesday defied NATO calls to remove roadblocks. They had called for Belgrade to send in Serbian troops and police.

The government in Belgrade said it will try to resolve the impasse through diplomatic means.

"The Serbian government is in permanent contact with NATO, the EU and the UN... to bring this back to the negotiating table," said Milivoje Mihajlovic, the government spokesman.

There have been previous clashes over the blocked borders between protesters and KFOR, who have patrolled Kosovo since Serbian forces withdrew in 1999 and a U.N. administration took over. A European Union mission (EULEX) replaced it in 2008.

Serbia still effectively runs Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, but is under pressure to help resolve the impasse after the European Commission conditioned future EU accession talks on Belgrade's cooperation with Kosovo's government.

Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign halted a crackdown on ethnic Albanian civilians in a two-year counter-insurgency war.

More than 80 countries, including the United States and most of the EU, have recognized Kosovo as a sovereign country.

(Writing by Aleksandar Vasovic; Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina; Editing by Rosalind Russell)