Kosovo delays measure stirring tensions with minority Serbs

By ZENEL ZHINIPOTOKU and LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s authorities have postponed a decision to implement a law on vehicle license plates and identity documents after minority Serbs rioted by blocking roads,  turning on air raid sirens and firing their guns into the air. Kosovo’s government early Monday accused neighboring Serbia of fueling ethnic tensions and trying to destabilize the country that declared independence in 2008 after a NATO intervention that stopped Serbia’s bloody crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999. Officials in Kosovo had earlier decided that as of Aug. 1 they would resume the practice of requiring vehicles that enter from Serbia to replace Serbia license plates with Kosovo ones. For the past 11 years, the reverse was required by Serbia for vehicles from Kosovo that go to Serbia.