North Kosovo

According to the northern-Kosovo based KoSSev website, Bahtiri is proposing that he should govern a "united (Kosovska Mitrovica."

"I demand that the Kosovo government take all the necessary legal actions to immediately abolish the decision to divide Mitrovica into two municipalities," Bahtiri wrote on his Facebook profile.

Protesters rallied on Tuesday in the north of the divided town of Mitrovica, carrying placards with messages like "EU open your eyes", "All we are saying is give peace a chance", "They are beating and terrorising us", "We want peace - not new wars" and "Don't shut us in a ghetto".

At Tuesday's extraordinary meeting of the mayors of the municipalities of Kosovska Mitrovica, Leposavic, Zubin Potok and Zvecan, a declaration was signed by which the leaders of these municipalities withdrew from their functions and severed any communication with the authorities in Pristina.

The Serb mayor of North Mitrovica, Goran Rakic, told an extraordinary session of the local assembly in the northern Kosovo town on Tuesday that he is resigning because of Pristina's decision to increase import tariffs on Serbian goods and because of violations of the human rights of Serbs living in Kosovo. 

At the fifth joint meeting of the governments of Albania and Kosovo in Peja, in Kosovo, the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama backed the decision of the Kosovo government to raise the tax on imports from Serbia and Bosnia from 10 to 100 per cent.

A statement believed to have been posted on Facebook by Milan Radoicic, a businessman widely seen as the real power-holder in Serb-majority northern Kosovo, who is wanted in connection with the murder of politician Oliver Ivanovic, said the ultimate goal of a police raid on his home last week was to kill him.

Simic also said that representatives of the emergency HQ (in Kosovska Mitrovica) have spoken with the families of the four Serbs and their lawyers.

The Serbs have been remanded in prison for 30 days. "They are in prison, a center for high security cases, for which there's absolutely no basis to be used in such situations," Simic said.

He also met with commanders of special military and police units regarding the current situation in Kosovo and Metohija, the government announced.

According to reports, the protests are taking place on Friday in several Serb communities in Kosovo and Metohija.

The majority of citizens are at the protest in Rudare, where they carry the flags of Serbia and slogans inviting the international community to react. Some of them read, "EU, open your eyes," "Do not starve our children," "We don't want to go to ghettos."

Security expert Zoran Dragisic commented on events in Kosovo and Metohija for Prva TV the same morning.