Serbs in northern Kosovo to remove barricades, Serbia's Vucic says

Members of Italian Armed Forces, part of the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, stand near a roadblock in Rudare, near the northern part of the ethnically-divided town of Mitrovica, Kosovo, December 28, 2022. REUTERS/Florion Goga

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Serbs in northern Kosovo who have been blocking roads for the past 19 days in a protest against the arrest of a former policeman will start removing barricades Thursday morning, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Wednesday evening.

"It is a long process. It will take a while," Vucic said after meeting Serbs from northern Kosovo in the Serbian town of Raska.

Dejan Pantic, the former policeman whose arrest triggered violent protests by Kosovo's Serb minority, was released from custody and put under house arrest after a request from the prosecutors' office on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Leslie Adler)