Serbia halts "provocative" train heading to Kosovo

Serbian train decorated with the national colors and plastered with icons and a nationalist slogan left Belgrade on Saturday for Kosovo, the former Serbian province, but was halted just before the border as tensions flared.


Serbia had styled the train as a bid to revive the first rail service from the Serbian capital to the mostly ethnic Serbian north of Kosovo since a bloody war 18 years ago that propelled Kosovo towards independence.

But Kosovo denounced the scheme as a provocation and an attempt to damage its territorial integrity. Its president, Hashim Thaci, called on "leading officials to take the necessary measures to stop this train, which threatens Kosovo's sovereignty".

Several hours after the train left central Belgrade, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said he had ordered it to be halted in southwest Serbia, just before the border with Kosovo, because of fears it would be attacked.

"I decided to stop the train at Raska to avoid a conflict and save lives," Vucic told a press conference in Belgrade.

He accused the Kosovo government of sending police units to the north of the territory to "provoke a wide-ranging conflict".
 [dailysabah.com/AFP]
 15/1/17
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