Kosovo's government closed the border at Brnjak and the larger border crossing at Merdare overnight on Friday (6-7 September).
Both checkpoints are in Kosovo's restive north, where ethnic Serbs are a majority in several areas, outnumbering the ethnic Albanians who predominantly populate the rest of the Balkan country.
Justifying the move, Kosovo's interior minister, Kshela Svekla, said that "masked extremists on the Serbian side of the border selectively stop citizens who want to cross through Serbia to third countries".
"And all this in full view of the Serbian authorities," he complained.
On September 6, dozens of demonstrators in Serbia blocked the two border crossings to prevent entry into Serbia from Kosovo.
They said they were protesting the closure of parallel administrations that ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo have set up to compete with the official ones.
The Serbian government in Belgrade, which has never recognised Kosovo's independence, funds a parallel health, education and social security system in Kosovo for the ethnic Serb population. | BGNES
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