Kosovo has closed two of its four border crossings with Serbia, the government said, after protesters on the Serbian side blocked roads and turned away passengers carrying Kosovo documents.

The closures at the Brnjak and Merdare crossings – both located in Kosovo’s northern region with a majority ethnic Serb population – came into effect overnight from Friday to Saturday.

Kosovar Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said the move was due to “masked extremist groups in Serbia” selectively blocking transit for travelers.

“And all this in plain sight of the Serbian authorities,” he said.

At least two other crossings between Serbia and Kosovo remain open.

What prompted the Serbian protests?

On Friday, dozens of demonstrators in Serbia blockaded the crossings to prevent traffic entering Serbia from Kosovo.

They said they were protesting against the closure of parallel administrations that ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo had set up to rival the official ones.

The Serbian government in Belgrade – which has never recognised the independence of Kosovo, its former southern province – finances a parallel health, education and social security system in Kosovo for the latter’s ethnic Serb population.

The Serbian demonstrators told media their border blockade would last until Kosovo police were “withdrawn from the north of Kosovo and the usurped institutions are returned to the Serbs”.

They also demanded that the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo (KFOR) “take over control in the north of Kosovo”.

The border blockade began a few days after police in northern Kosovo raided and then closed five administrative offices linked to the Belgrade government.

Protesters gather to partially block the road near the main Kosovo-Serbia border crossing in Merdare, Serbia, on September 6 [Valdrin Xhemaj/Reuters]

Longstanding tensions

Kosovo’s Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla-Schwarz told reporters on Friday the Serbian protests were “yet more proof” that Belgrade was trying to provoke and destabilise its southern neighbour.

Animosity has persisted between Serbia and Kosovo since a war in the 1990s between Serbian armed forces and Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian secessionists.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008. But Serbia has refused to recognise the move and has encouraged ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo to remain loyal to Belgrade.

Tensions ratcheted up a notch earlier this year, when Kosovo made the euro the only legal currency, effectively outlawing the use of the Serbian dinar.