(AP Photo/Visar Kryeziu)

MITROVICA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo Albanians on Sunday blocked roads and burned tires on a planned route by Serbia’s president in the former Serbian province, further fueling tensions between the two Balkan foes. During his two-day trip, President Aleksandar Vucic planned to visit a Serb-populated village in central Kosovo on Sunday, but roads leading to the region were blocked by wooden logs, trucks and heavy machinery, preventing him from reaching his destination. Vucic and his entourage were later stopped by Kosovo police on the road to the Drenica region and were told they couldn't continue for security reasons. According to Vučić, his entourage could hear gunfire coming from the direction of the roadblocks on Sunday. Kosovo, which has a population of 1.8 million and is mainly ethnic Albanian, declared independence from Belgrade in 2008, almost a decade after NATO air strikes ousted Serbian forces and halted a crackdown on ethnic Albanians in a counter-insurgency. The Drenica Valley saw many armed clashes between the KLA and Serb forces during the 1998–1999 Kosovo War, which was brought to an end by a U.S.-led NATO intervention that forced Serb forces to retreat. Kosovo, which has a population of 1.8 million and is mainly ethnic Albanian, declared independence from Belgrade in 2008, almost a decade after NATO air strikes ousted Serbian forces and halted a crackdown on ethnic Albanians in a counter-insurgency. “I wish to believe that we can now have an era of rational, and why not in 50 years, friendly relations with the Albanians.”

But Vucic also issued a veiled threat, saying that Serbia will defend minority Serbs in its former province if they come under attack. Aleksandar Vučić, a one-time ultranationalist, had planned to detail on the trip a proposal for a future land swap with Kosovo, part of a bid to mend relations between the two Balkan foes, which would improve Serbia’s chances of joining the European Union. A Serb enclave in the Drenica Valley, a stronghold of Albanian nationalism, Banje and a nearby Serb-majority village were attacked in May 1998 by soldiers of the Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army, or KLA. NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo say the safety of Serbia President Aleksandar Vucic during a visit to Kosovo isn't threatened despite roadblocks that prevented his visit to a central Serb-populated village.
About 200 Kosovo Albanian veterans from the Kosovo War block the road to Banje near Drenica and prevent a planned visit by the President of Serbia.