It looks as if the crisis on Kosovo's border with Serbia could be nearing its end. On August 3representatives of the Serbian government struck a deal with the head of KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo. Hopes are high that roads in the north of the country, which have been blocked by protesting Serbs for over a week, may soon be opened.

Although Kosovo's leaders will be frustrated at having been left out of a deal affecting the future of their country, they may well have scored a victory, of sorts. The latest news is confusing and different sources are reporting different things. So let's try to clear it up. (You'll need some patience: this is the Balkans we're dealing with.)

The north of Kosovo, which begins at the bridge in the middle of the divided town of Mitrovica, is beyond the control of the country's government. Although there are some non-Serbs in north Mitrovica and one or two Albanian villages in the north, the vast majority of the 40,000 people in this region are Serbs. They want nothing to do with the government in Pristina and consider themselves to be living in Serbia.

Following Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008, ethnic Serbs in the north of the country burned down the two border points with Serbia in the region. They were rebuilt, and I pass through them fairly often. But it's not always clear who's in charge.

About two weeks ago, travelling into Kosovo from Serbia, my documents were examined by a Serb in the uniform of Kosovo's police. His chain of command was unclear, to say the least.

It got more confusing. There was no customs check at the border. A row of KFOR armoured vehicles lay just inside Kosovo proper, but this remained de facto Serb-controlled territory. Eventually I reached another police checkpoint, where an Albanian policeman, also in a Kosovar uniform, checked me again. To add to the complication, Kosovo customs men were present to rummage through my baggage.

Customs, in fact, is the nub of the issue. After Kosovo declared independence, Serb authorities banned the few goods it exported from travelling either to or through Serbia. Bosnia followed suite. (Kosovo, however, continued to allow imports from Serbia.)

Serbian officials said that they could not accept goods sporting “Republic of Kosovo” stamps. However, the stamps never actually said this.

Indeed in 2009, the then head of the lingering UN mission in Kosovo wrote a letter [PDF download] to the Serbian authorities saying that the Kosovo customs stamp was fully compliant with the UN Security Council resolution that had set up the UN's administration in Kosovo in 1999, and that it should therefore be acceptable to Serbia. Even the five European Union states that do not recognise Kosovo's independence accepted the stamp. The EU unsuccessfully pressed the Serbs to back down.

Fast-forward to this July, and the opening of EU-sponsored talks in Brussels between Kosovo and Serbia. On July 2nd a breakthrough was made on so-called technical matters: car number plates and so on. The Kosovars expected a second deal on customs to follow quickly afterwards. But Serbia postponed those talks. Hashim Thaci, the Kosovar prime minister, came under pressure from nationalists and others at home who argued that he was selling out to Serbia.

Mr Thaci's response was to impose customs duties on products from Serbia and Bosnia. To enforce this, on July 25th he sent units of the special police to seize the two northern border points. After some fighting, which led to the death of one Kosovar policeman, they took control of one. Roads were blocked by local Serbs in response, and KFOR had to deploy. Borko Stefanovic, the Serbian negotiator in the Brussels talks, pitched up to encourage the Serb protestors; Kosovo's interior minister threatened (emptily) to arrest him.

So what about yesterday's deal? KFOR will now allow cars and small trucks to cross the border at the two contentious frontier posts. Anything else, including large commercial vehicles, will have to enter elsewhere, ie, at border crossings operated by Kosovo's customs service (although there is still some confusion about this). Hence the partial victory for Kosovo. It now remains to be seen if a deal can be worked out over the overall issue of customs stamps.

In the meantime, Serbian and Bosnian businesses have been losing out to Croatian, Albanian and Bulgarian rivals. Serbian authorities have made a feeble attempt to claim a propaganda coup by saying that Kosovo's embargo has led to shortages of bread and other supplies in the north. This would be credible if it was not widely known that the Serb so-called "patriots" of northern Kosovo are only too happy to cut dodgy deals with their Albanian business counterparts in the south.

Kosovo's government has been on “an emotional rollercoaster”, says one source. The muscular attempt to seize control of the checkpoints may have gone down well with the public, but it has angered EU officials, who fear their recent dialogue triumph will turn to dust. Still, say Kosovars, with the EU showing no sign of allowing Kosovo entry into the visa-free Schengen zone—a key policy goal—why should they care?