German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle on Thursday urged Kosovo and Serbia to swiftly defuse tensions along their border, saying the problem was a European concern, according to dpa. "European future is made here and European peace is defended here, as well," Westerwelle said after meeting Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in Pristina, warning that conflicts along ethnic lines must end in Europe. The German minister arrived in Pristina at the end of a three-day Balkan tour to discuss renewed ethnic tensions in Kosovo, a former Serbian province now governed by the Albanian majority. He is the first top politician from the European Union to visit since a spate of violence erupted in a northern Kosovo Serb enclave two weeks ago in the wake of a trade war between Belgrade and Pristina. The tension escalated when Thaci's cabinet ordered police to seize two border crossings, Jarinje and Brnjak, in the enclave in order to impose a trade ban on Serbian goods. Serbs responded with riots, in which a policeman was killed and the Jarinje checkpoint demolished, and erected roadblocks on major routes in the area. The commander of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (KFOR), German General Erhard Buehler, last week brokered a deal for Serbia and Kosovo to reduce tensions. After talks with Westerwelle, Thaci thanked KFOR for the mediation and defended the decision to send police as a necessary step to affirm rule of law. Serbs in their northern enclave, however, have refused to comply and fully remove the roadblocks they erected on key routes in the area. The Serbs resist Pristina's rule and look to Belgrade as their capital. The deal pushed through by KFOR was a compromise aimed at allowing traffic through two border crossings to Serbia in the enclave, while enhancing controls to curb smuggling and trafficking. The row over the borders began in the wake of a trade war between Kosovo and Serbia, which refuses to recognize the sovereignty of its former province and open trade routes to its goods. The dispute last month disrupted talks between the two sides led under EU facilitation since March. Following the agreement pushed through by NATO, Belgrade officials said the talks will resume on September 5. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, at a nod from the United States and other major Western powers, including Germany. Not all EU nations recognized it - five of the 27 countries refused to take that step. Kosovo is the final stop on Westerwelle's current tour of the Balkans after visits to Montenegro and Croatia earlier in the week.
