The Steering Group says that the Kosovo government is to “start preparations for an organized end to supervised independence” by the end of 2012, saying it would transform Kosovo into a “normal European state.”

But the statelet still claimed by Serbia has little international recognition, including from two permanent UN Security Council members, Russia and China. Kosovo’s NATO-mandated secession from Serbia in the midst of a NATO occupation remains controversial, particularly as a number of ethnic Serbian towns were blocked them from trading with their neighbors still inside Serbia. NATO troops continue to enforce the closed border.

The Steering Group went on to warn Serbia against allowing Kosovar Serbs, who remain Serbian citizens, to vote in the upcoming Serbian elections. They also warned Serbia to remove all police from Kosovo territory. Serbia insists it has no police in Kosovo.

At issue are the roadblocks in northern Kosovo, set up by Kosovar Serbs to protest the ethnic Albanian dominated government’s efforts (with NATO help) to crush dissent in the north and close the border to all outside trade.

After a bit of haranguing from NATO, Serbian President Boris Tadic has called on the Kosovar Serbs to remove the roadblocks and let NATO close them off from all outside trade. The Kosovar Serbs, who don’t really have any special reason to listen to the president of Serbia, haven’t reacted so far, prompting “deep concern” from NATO officials.

And even though Tadic played ball, his inability to dictate the behavior of other people of the same ethnicity as him has several in the EU, including Germany, looking to impose various punishments on Serbia, including eliminating them as a candidate for EU membership.

France opposed, but not on the grounds that there isn’t collective racial guilt, let alone on the grounds that the protest in Kosovo is mostly a reaction to harsh crackdowns by the Kosovar regime. Instead, their argument is that they want Tadic’s party to win the next election, and they’re worried that the sanctions will hurt his chances.

The ethnic Serbs in Northern Kosovo have been blocking the roads to military and regime forces off and on since late July, when Kosovo and NATO troops invaded the region and seized border posts to prevent trade with neighboring Serbia.

The Serbian government warned NATO against using military force to remove the roadblocks, saying that attempting to crush the unrest in the north violently would only add to the tension in the region.

The Kosovo government is dominated by ethnic Albanians, and is hostile to Serbia, from which it formally seceded in 2008 (after a nine year run under UN rule). The northern portion of the nation is ethnic Serbian, and objected to being included in the secession. They have called for secession from Kosovo, but it is opposed by NATO.

“Proposals for partition of Kosovo or exchange of territories are unacceptable, inhuman and anti-historical,” she insisted after the talks. The Kosovar Serbs have hoped to rejoin Serbia, complaining of harsh discrimination in Albanian majority NATO-occupied Kosovo.

Many in the Serb-majority north had been operating as though they were still part of Serbia, trading and traveling freely. Attacks by the central government and the seizure of border posts by NATO put an end to that.

Now NATO is warning that tensions are on the rise again in the north, and that “extremist” sentiment among ethnic Serbs could lead to violence. At the same time, Rompuy and other EU officials praised Jahjaga for her willingness to meet over the tensions, even though she made it clear the Kosovo government will do nothing to answer the grievances causing them.

“I deplore the NATO strike on Al-Jamahiriya and its installations,” UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said in a statement.

“Media outlets should not be targeted in military actions,” she said. “U.N. Security Council Resolution 1738 (2006) condemns acts of violence against journalists and media personnel in conflict situations.

At the time of the bombing, NATO spokesman Colonel Roland Lavoie said it “was necessary” as TV was being used for “terror broadcasts” by the Gadhafi regime, “designed to systematically oppress and threaten civilians and to incite attacks against them.” But, Bokova countered, international law prohibits attacks against journalists in war zones, even if they are engaged in propaganda.

But U.S.-NATO powers have recognized information as a weapon for a long time. Notably, during the bombing of Serbia in 1999, NATO attacked the government-run studios of Radio Television Serbia (RTS) in Belgrade, killing sixteen employees. The attack occurred with total impunity and to this day has seen no accountability.

After the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, al-Jazeera’s Kabul offices were attacked with U.S. missile strikes. Reportedly, there were no journalists killed, but al-Jazeera’s managing director confirmed U.S. forces knew the site was al-Jazeera’s. Again, in Iraq in 2003, the Qatar-based news organization had its offices bombed in Baghdad, and again had its journalists attacked in a Basra hotel.

The UNESCO Director-General is right to deplore these NATO attacks, but it is unlikely to serve any accountability to the western powers.

The deal was not approved of by the Kosovar Serbs living in the northern towns near the border posts, and protesters from those towns contionue to blockade the main roads in protest of the move.

Kosovo government forces seized the border posts away from local police two weeks ago, claiming that the ethnic Serbian locals weren’t enforcing a trade embargo on goods from neighboring Serbia. The move sparked a clash and eventually NATO sent troops and escalated their role in the region.

The ethnic Serbian portion of Kosovo objected to being included in the Kosovar Secession which followed NATO’s occupation of the region, and they have continued to attempt to maintain relative autonomy. The Kosovo trade restrictions were seen as much an effort to punish their Serbian minority as they were about the still tension relationship with Serbia.

This appears to have been a premature assessment, however, as the Kosovo government quickly and angrily rejected the deal, saying the deal allowing the free flow of people across the border was entirely “unacceptable.”

NATO seemed keen on defusing the crisis quickly, after their attempt at seizing the border posts spawned civilian-assembled roadblocks and led them to deploy more troops to the country’s Serb-majority north.

The entire situation started early last week, when ethnic-Albanian government forces captured the border posts, claiming that the Kosovar Serb police were allowing the region to ignore an import ban. NATO seemed initially to back Kosovo in the move, but now appears to be just trying to end the matter as quietly as possible, agreeing to a deal with Serbia that mostly allowed border traffic to resume. The Kosovo government seems determined to continue the controversy no matter what, in an effort to punish their Serb minority for its secessionist ambitions.

Last Tuesday, Kosovo sent Albanian policemen to border posts in the north to extend Pristina’s control over the rebellious territory and enforce a trade war with Serbia. Local Serbs fought back, killing one officer. In an effort to calm tensions, NATO took control of the border, prompting Serbs to form roadblocks to prevent the stationing of Albanian police in their territory.

NATO has tried to project an aura of even-handedness, but local Serbs and even officials in Belgrade question their motives after the international troops shut the border down, in effect banning Serbian goods.

“NATO is not taking sides in this crisis. We remain…a neutral actor, providing a safe and secure environment,” said NATO spokesperson Carmen Romero. NATO says the border shut-down is because the unrest makes it impossible to check trucks crossing the border, but Serbs say it is to shore up the regime in Pristina. Serbia warned a cut in cross-border trade could create a “humanitarian catastrophe.”

Meanwhile, Interior Minister and former PM Bajram Rexhepi, who ordered the seizure of the border posts, told Der Spiegel that Kosovo’s territory is “inviolable.” This is despite the fact that Kosovo itself is not recognized by most of the world as an independent state, and only split from Serbia in 2008 (after clearing Serbs from some interior areas in a 2004 pogrom). Pristina continues to struggle for power within its territory.

“I have the responsibility and legal obligation to implement [the law] by all necessary and legal means, and across the entire state,” Rexhepi told the German newspaper. Whether this will be possible is yet to be seen.

The European Union, which normally backs the Albanian government of Kosovo, criticized the move to wrest control the north.

Pristina aimed to start a trade war with Belgrade by taking over border posts previously manned by Kosovo Serbs and cutting off the flow of goods. An Albanian policeman was killed in the operation, and subsequent skirmishes between Kosovo and Serbian government police prompted NATO troops to seize the border posts. Locals then formed roadblocks to prevent Albanian police from being posted by NATO.

“We will not allow NATO to bring Kosovo (Albanian) police and customs to the border, but we will protect ourselves in a peaceful manner,” the mayor of the northern part of the divided city of Mitrovica told Reuters this weekend. The protesters are using vehicles, large logs, and tires to block the roads.

The new troops consist of 600 Germans and 100 Austrians, who will join the 6,000 NATO troops already in Kosovo. A NATO spokesperson told Reuters the deployment was to relieve some overworked battalions, “not [because] the situation has gotten worse.”

The Kosovo War officially ended in 1999, but the ethnic-Albanian state that declared independence in 2008 — after clearing Serbs from some interior areas in a 2004 pogrom — continues to struggle for power in its territory. The EU, which normally favors Pristina, criticized the move to control the north.

Meanwhile, in Bosnia, a grenade was sent in the mail to a war-crimes court the country’s Serbs see as biased against them. Court security found the weapon and say authorities know the identity of the sender.

The Kosovo government claimed it wanted to “restore order” in the area, which borders Serbia, but did not describe any specific disorder. Pristina also aims to start a trade war with Serbia; grabbing border posts could help them seal the disobedient Kosovo Serbs off from Serbian goods.

Though the US and Europe helped Kosovo secede from rule by Serbia, they have denied the same privilege to Kosovo’s Serbs, historically a majority in the north. The region is also home to refugees from other parts of Kosovo, having been cleansed in 2004’s ethnic pogroms.

Serbia refuses to recognize the breakaway republic, as do other countries with separatist movements.

The EU is calling for Kosovo to remove the policemen and turn the border posts back over to NATO, whose forces control security in the disputed territory.