(1 Nov 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
North Mitrovica - 1 November 2022
1. Various of police vehicles by a bridge
2. Police officers and people walking in the street
3. Close of police vehicle
4. Wide of street
5. Various of streets with Serbian flags on street lights
6. Wide of cars parked
7. Police on bridge
8. Various of people on the street
9. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Aleksandar Arsenijevic, Serbian politician:
"With this decision, the government in Pristina is gradually tightening the noose on our citizens, compared to the previous one which was an ultimate (decision), but it doesn't provide any solution. During this period, Mr. (Kosovan Prime Minister, Albin) Kurti explicitly said there would not be any other decisions. Apart from this one which to me is a stubborn one, and aims to tighten the noose in stages on our citizens."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jarinje, Kosovo/Serbia border - 1 November 2022
10. Vehicles at Jarinje border crossing
11. Police at crossing
12. Poster on wall with instructions regarding license plates
13. Police officers
14. Various of KFOR (NATO-led international peacekeeping force) vehicles near border
STORYLINE:
Authorities in Kosovo on Tuesday warned members of the ethnic Serbian minority to replace their old vehicle license plates, despite calls from the U.S. and the European Union to defer the move that has stoked tensions with neighbouring Serbia.
Last Friday Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti said authorities decided to "sequence" with different compelling steps the reaction to the ethnic Serbs not accepting to change their previous plates to the Kosovar ones, and not immediately stop their use.
For the first three weeks in November, those owning vehicles with illegal number plates will only be warned.
For the next two months they will be fined, and for three other months until April 21, they will drive only with replaced local plates.
At the start of the day Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla called on ethnic Serbs not to remain a "pawn to the political interest and criminal groupings" but change the license plates.
Last week Svecla said only 20 had changed them and at least one of their cars was burnt after the move.
In August, the government in Pristina decided to postpone to November 1 the decision to require vehicles holding old or Serbian number plates to replace them with Kosovar ones.
That also meant that vehicles entering from Serbia had to replace Serbian license plates with Kosovar ones.
For the past 11 years, the reverse was required by Serbia for vehicles coming in from Kosovo.
Trouble brewed earlier this summer over Serbia's and Kosovo's refusal to recognize each other's identity documents and vehicle license plates.
In August, EU and U.S. envoys negotiated a solution to the travel documents' problem, allowing the situation to calm down.
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