A border post between Kosovo and the rest of Serbia was reopened Tuesday, one day after Serb protestors attacked Kosovo police officers at the site.
Special Kosovo police units and NATO-led international peacekeepers are guarding the border crossing, said Kosovo police.
More than 100 people from southern Serbian towns gathered at the Mutivoda crossing point in northeastern Kosovo Monday and hurled stones and glass bottles at the police. Kosovo police used tear gas to disperse the protestors.
Nineteen Kosovo police officers and five Serb army reservists were injured in the incident.
"The police are very carefully reacting to the provocations coming from the protestors, because the incidents are occurring in the neutral zone," said Kosovo Police Service spokesman Veton Elshani.
Elshani described Monday's incident as isolated, but blamed Serbian police authorities for allowing protestors to approach the Kosovo side of the border post.
A similar incident occurred last Thursday at another border post. A group of Serbs tried to enter Kosovo but were stopped by international and local security forces.
The Serbs were protesting at the unilateral declaration of independence of Kosovo by the ethnic Albanian authorities on Feb. 17.
Monday's incident happened hours after Serbia's minister for Kosovo, Slobodan Samardzic, entered Kosovo to meet Serb communities. He visited a construction site in eastern Kosovo where the Serbian government is building houses for Serbs living in there.
Another Serbian minister was due to visit Kosovo Tuesday. Finance Minister Mirko Cvetkovic will meet the Serb community in the northern town of Mitrovica.
Source: Xinhua
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