Citizens in Jarinje: We crossed the border like it was the EU

With such a document, named as a substitute for ID, Kosovars have been equipped to enter Serbia's territory for 11 years now. Neither will Kosovo issue such documents to citizens of Serbia.

In Jarinje and Merdar, citizens of both sides are crossing the border smoothly with their personal documents.

In Jarinje, Liridon Shala from Podujevo, who crossed the border to Serbia with Kosovo documents, said that even when the entry/exit documents were not a problem. But, with their removal, he says he feels like he's in the European Union.

No problem we've been through, no problem even when they were letters [datas for entry/outflow] just because we had to get them to Serbian authorities, we've never had a problem, no obstacle we've had. Today, as normal as if it were the European Union, it seemed, almost the same”, he told REL.

Zoran, from Leshak in northern Kosovo, said he would cross the border with Serbia's documents and that the agreement to abolish the entry/exit documents described it as something good.

I expect a peace agreement. Let us peacefully allow” together, he said, as he crossed the border at Jarinje.

Dragan Mirosavlevic, professor at the University of Mitrovica, who entered Kosovo on September 1st through the Merdara crossing, told Radio Free Europe that everything went well at the border.

He did not comment on the agreement, saying he does not see much news.

Nebojsa Llekic from Preoc, in the Pristina municipality, said the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia for documents mainly applies to Kosovo's north because Serbs in the south have documents of both states.

I have both IDs, so we don't have any problems. This whole deal seems to be mainly for Serbs in the north. Otherwise, denial of documents only makes it difficult for citizens to communicate, regardless of whether they are Albanians or Serbs”, he told REL as he entered Kosovo through the Merdara border crossing.

The removal of this move confirmed in the early hours of September 1st Kosovo Interior Minister Jalal Svecla from the border checkpoint in Brnjak.

I can confirm that the same thing happened [from the border points] in Merdare, in White Demes and in Muchibabe. In Jarinje, we still don't have a car, which has passed, but we can actually conclude that Serbia's authorities have stopped issuing pages for access/ex1> to our citizens, Svechla said.

This is a great relief for our citizens, who travel for or through Serbia”, he added.

The agreement on removing this document was reached last weekend.

Presequently, it has been seen that Kosovo will start applying the same measure for the citizens of Serbia by 1 September.

Such a decision has been implemented briefly on August 1st, but due to the rebellion of some Serbs in northern Kosovo and with the international community's suggestion, the government has postponed it for 30 days.

The parties, meanwhile, have reached agreement on non-applicating these documents from either side.

From September 1st in Kosovo, it is expected to start implementing the Government's decision to reregister cars with license plates released by Serbia.

This arrangement has also had to start on August 1, but for the same reason, it has been postponed for 30 days.

Svecla said he hopes even “the issue of switching from Serbia's illegal license plates to Kosovo license plates” will pass smoothly, as does the document.

A day before removing the application for entry/exit documents, Serbia placed several reports at the crossings with Kosovo, where it said that the possibility of crossing the border with Kosovo's ID documents becomes “for very practical reasons”, for freedom of movement to become easier, given the Free Move Agreement.

This agreement, Kosovo and Serbia, has reached 2011 under the dialogue for normalisation of relations, but has so far found inadequate implementation.