NATO peacekeeping soldiers formed security cordons around three town halls in Kosovo on Monday as police clashed with Serb protesters, while Serbia’s president put the army on the highest level of combat alert. The tense situation developed after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo’s Serb majority area after elections the Serbs boycotted. In Zvecan, one of the towns, Kosovo police – staffed by ethnic Albanians after Serbs quit the force last year – sprayed pepper gas to repel a crowd of Serbs who broke through a security barricade and tried to force their way into the municipality building. The Associated Press has the story:
Kosovo Serbs clash with NAT0 peacekeepers
Newslooks- ZVECAN, Kosovo (AP)
Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo clashed with troops from the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force as they tried to take over the offices of one of the municipalities where ethnic Albanian mayors took up their posts last week, with the help of the authorities.
The Serbs started clashing with the police in the morning in the municipality of Zvecan, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the capital, Pristina. In the afternoon, KFOR soldiers called on Serbs to clear the way for two vehicles from the Kosovar special police forces.
The soldiers then used tear gas and stun grenades to protect the Kosovar officers in the vehicles and disperse protesters, according to witnesses and local media. The assembled Serbs responded by throwing rocks and other hard objects. One vehicles was burned, but there is no confirmation of any injured person yet.
Earlier, journalists were sent into the public building for their own safety.
The violence was the latest incident as tensions soared over the past week, with Serbia putting the country’s military on high alert and sending more troops to the border with Kosovo, which declared independence from Belgrade in 2008.
Kosovo and Serbia have been foes for decades, with Belgrade refusing to recognize Kosovo’s sovereignty.
The United States and the European Union have stepped up efforts to help solve the Kosovo-Serbia dispute, fearing further instability in Europe as Russia’s war rages in Ukraine. The EU has made it clear to both Serbia and Kosovo they must normalize relations if they’re to make any progress toward joining the bloc.
On Monday, Kosovar police and the NATO-led Kosovo Force, or KFOR, were seen protecting the municipal buildings in Zvecan, Leposavic, Zubin Potok and Mitrovica, four communes in the north that held early elections last month.
The votes were largely boycotted by ethnic Serbs, who form the majority in those areas. Only ethnic Albanian or other smaller minority representatives were elected to the mayoral posts and assemblies.
Police said that Serbs gathered early in the morning at three of the municipal buildings — in Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok but not in northern Mitrovica. In Zvecan, they tried to enter using violence and tear gas. Police responded with tear gas spray, a statement said.
Serbia’s prime minister, Ana Brnabic, criticized the international handling of the events in Kosovo, saying that KFOR was “not protecting the people … they are protecting the usurpers,” apparently referring to the new mayors.
“But we must protect the peace. Peace is all we have,” she said.
Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said the Serbian army was wrapping up its deployment following the decision to raise the alert level. Vucevic, who said he was hoping for a political solution, also criticized KFOR, saying that their position “looks like they are protecting the police from unarmed people.”
Serbs say they want both the new mayors, whom they called “illegal and illegitimate sheriffs,” to resign and leave the offices, and special police to leave northern Kosovo, according to Goran Rakic, a local Serb politician.
KFOR said it had increased its presence in the four municipalities, including Mitrovica. It called on all sides to refrain from actions that could cause escalation and urged both “Belgrade and Pristina to engage in the EU-led dialogue.”
After meeting with Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Monday, U.S. Ambassador Jeff Hovenier repeated a call from Western powers — the U.S., France, Italy, Germany and the U.K. — “to avoid circumstances where public officials are accessing public buildings through the use of force.”
He and EU Ambassador Tomas Szunyog met with two mayors of northern communes to discuss “how they can fulfill their duties to serve all their citizens.” Two others didn’t attend the informal meeting.
More than a dozen Serbs and five Kosovar police officers were injured in clashes last Friday. Serbian troops on the border with Kosovo were put on high alert the same day.
Ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo, who are a majority in that part of the country, tried to block recently elected ethnic Albanian officials from entering municipal buildings. Kosovo police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and let the new officials into the offices.
The U.S. and the EU condemned Kosovo’s government for using police to forcibly enter the municipal buildings.
At a rally Friday evening in Belgrade with his supporters, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said, “Serbia won’t sit idle the moment Serbs in northern Kosovo are attacked.”
However, any attempt by Serbia to send its troops over the border would mean a clash with NATO-led troops stationed there.
A 2013 Pristina-Belgrade agreement on forming the Serb association was later declared unconstitutional by Kosovo’s Constitutional Court, which said the plan wasn’t inclusive of other ethnicities and could entail the use of executive powers to impose laws.
The two sides have tentatively agreed to back a EU plan on how to proceed, but tensions still simmer.
The conflict in Kosovo erupted in 1998 when separatist ethnic Albanians rebelled against Serbia’s rule, and Serbia responded with a brutal crackdown. About 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, died. NATO’s military intervention in 1999 eventually forced Serbia to pull out of the territory. Washington and most EU countries have recognized Kosovo as an independent state, but Serbia, Russia and China haven’t.
