NATO announced on Tuesday the dispatch of new forces to Kosovo where Serb demonstrators are still gathered in front of a municipality in the north of the territory, the scene the day before of clashes which left around thirty injured among international soldiers and fifty among the protesters. . “The deployment of additional NATO forces in Kosovo is a prudent measure to ensure that Kfor (the force led by the Alliance in the former Serbian province) has the capabilities it needs to maintain security,” Admiral Stuart B. Munsch said in a statement issued in Naples.
In Zvecan, soldiers in Kfor riot gear placed a metal barrier around the town hall to prevent several hundred Serbs from gaining access, an AFP journalist reported. Three armored vehicles of the Kosovo police, whose presence still arouses the ire of the majority Serbs in four localities in northern Kosovo, were parked in front of the town hall. Serbs boycotted the April municipal elections in these cities, which resulted in the election of Albanian mayors with a turnout of less than 3.5%.
Serbia has never recognized the independence of Kosovo
These city councilors were enthroned last week by the government of Albin Kurti, the Prime Minister of this territory largely populated by Albanians, ignoring the calls for appeasement launched by the European Union and the United States. . Serbia, supported by its Russian and Chinese allies, has never recognized the independence proclaimed in 2008 by its former province, a decade after a deadly war between Serbian forces and Albanian separatist rebels.
Tensions regularly erupt between Belgrade and Pristina. Some 120,000 Serbs live in Kosovo, out of 1.8 million inhabitants. About a third of them live in the North. The demonstrators demand the departure of the Albanian mayors considered “illegitimate” just like that of the Kosovo police. The situation had already degenerated on Friday when the mayors came to take office accompanied by the Kosovar police. Monday, in a new fit of fever, Serb demonstrators tried to force the entrance door of the town hall of Zvecan but were repelled by the Kosovar forces. Kfor then tried to separate the two parties before starting to disperse the most violent demonstrators.
EU calls on belligerents to ‘defuse tensions immediately and unconditionally’
The protesters responded by throwing stones, bottles and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers. 19 Hungarian and 11 Italian soldiers were injured in the clashes, KFOR said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that they suffered in particular from “fractures and burns caused by improvised incendiary explosive devices”. “Three Hungarian soldiers were injured by firearms,” according to the same source. At least 52 people were injured in the ranks of the Serb demonstrators, three of them seriously, said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Five Serb demonstrators suspected of having participated in the clashes have been arrested, according to Kosovo police.
Belgrade has ordered the Serbian army to be placed on high alert, as has been the regular case in recent years. Kosovo police described the situation as “fragile but calm” and called on residents “not to fall into the trap of calls for violent demonstrations and provocations”. “Security in the north of the country has deteriorated to the point of endangering lives.” Faced with this umpteenth crisis between the two former enemies, the European Union called on Serbs and Kosovars alike to “defuse tensions immediately and unconditionally”. Paris asked the “parties, in particular the government of Kosovo, to immediately take the necessary measures to reduce tensions”.
Aleksandar Vucic denounces “the unilateral decisions of Pristina”
The Serbian president met on Tuesday in Belgrade with the ambassadors of the Quinte, five member powers of NATO who are closely watching the Western Balkans, but announced that he would also meet with representatives of Russia and China. In the meantime, Moscow called on the West to “finally put an end to its false propaganda and to stop blaming the incidents in Kosovo on the Serbs driven to despair”.
“Pristina’s unilateral decisions are leading to violence against the Serbian community, which is taking us away from lasting peace and stability in the region,” added Aleksandar Vucic on Instagram after meeting with Western diplomats. “The rapid withdrawal of false mayors and members of the so-called special forces from Pristina is the condition for preserving peace in Kosovo”.