(29 Jul 2011) SHOTLIST
1. Top shot roads, pile of gravel on one barricading it, truck and shade where Serbs are sitting manning barricade
2. Serbs sitting under shade at barricade
3. Various of NATO vehicles and soldiers on road
4. Cutaway Serbian flag
5. SOUNDBITE: (Serbian) Krstimir Pantic, President of the assembly of North Mitrovica:
"No food has been coming in from Serbia because NATO has closed down the crossing. We risk a humanitarian catastrophe here if food does not get through."
6. Various of road with gravel, tyres, wood and packs of bricks
7. Serbian flags draped over bricks
8. Various of Serb protesters sitting by barricade, NATO soldiers facing them down road
9. Man lying on road to block NATO vehicles
10. Major General Erhard Buehler, NATO commander in Kosovo, talking to NATO personnel, pan left to road and Serb sit-in
11. Various of Buehler going forward to meet Serbian representatives Borislav Stefanovic and Goran Bogdanovic
12. Serb protesters sitting in by barricade
STORYLINE
Serbs in Kosovo''s north were on Friday still blocking a convoy of NATO vehicles and preventing them from reaching their base.
Serbian official Borislav Stefanovic, who heads the Serbian team negotiating with Kosovo, said he could not ask the hundreds of protesters to unblock the road.
The Serbs had barricaded the road with trucks and mounds of earth in response to NATO taking over control of two crossing points on Kosovo''s border with Serbia on Thursday.
NATO moved in after Kosovo police sent special police units to take control of two crossing points with Serbia in the Serb-run area that says it does not recognize the Kosovar government.
The top NATO commander in Kosovo, Major General Erhard Buehler was also in north Kosovo and met Serbia''s representatives to ease the tensions.
The military alliance has halved the number of its troops from 10,000 to over 5,000 since last year. But, the recent violence could delay announced plans for further reduction by the end of 2001.
NATO sent reinforcements to Kosovo''s north after Kosovo police sent special police units to take control of two crossing points with Serbia in the Serb-run area.
When the special police units withdrew and declared the operation over, a crowd of Serbs attacked one of the two border crossings and burned it.
The attack was the second of its kind since Kosovo''s secession from Serbia in 2008. Immediately after the declaration of independence, Serbs attacked the border crossings and removed all signs identifying Kosovo as an independent state.
Since then the two crossing points were manned by Serb members of Kosovo''s police and supervised by police from the European Union.
However, goods coming in from Serbia did not pay customs duty, undermining Pristina''s claim to statehood.
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