Kosovo Deports Senior Serbian Official

Kosovar authorities have deported a senior Serbian government official who had travelled to the north of the country, defying a ban by Pristina.

BELGRADE, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 27th Mar, 2018 ) ::Kosovar authorities have deported a senior Serbian government official who had travelled to the north of the country, defying a ban by Pristina.

Kosovar special police units detained the head of the Serbian government's office for Kosovo, Marko Djuric, in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica on March 26, Pristina reported. Officers also fired tear gas to disperse a crowd of ethnic Serbs protesting against the arrest.

Djuric was transferred to a court in Pristina, before being expelled from the country. Police earlier said they had sent reinforcements to northern Kosovo to stop Djuric and other Serbian officials from entering the country.

The incident added to already high tensions between Kosovo and Serbia. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the Kosovar police's use of force and the detention of Djuric amounted to a "brutal provocation" and a "criminal act." "We will not let this go unpunished," Vucic said in an address aired live on Serbian media.

However, he also called on Serbs in northern Kosovo to remain calm and stopped short of pulling out of European Union-mediated talks on normalizing ties with Kosovo. Kosovo's President Hashim Thaci also called for calm, saying the incident "should not violate the communication between Kosovo and Serbia.

" The Serbian List, part of the Kosovo government, adopted late Monday initiative for abandoning the government.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini wrote on Twitter, "Djuric now free on his way back. Need calm & preserve dialogue." The US ambassador to Pristina, Greg Delawie, expressed concern over the incident and said there was "no alternative" to dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.

Kosovo's Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has refused to recognize the former province's statehood despite its recognition by 116 other countries. EU-brokered normalization talks have stalled in spite of a framework deal signed in 2013.

Tensions remain high, both between Belgrade and Pristina and between Kosovo's dominant majority ethnic Albanian population and its minority Serbs. It was not clear how Djuric and another official from Serbia -- the Serbian Presidency's Secretary-General Nikola Selakovic -- entered North Mitrovica, where the two attended a roundtable discussion on how to strengthen "Serbian institutions" in Kosovo.