After several dozen injured, Brussels calls for a de-escalation. This Tuesday, May 30, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, demanded that the Serbs and Kosovars manage to “defuse tensions immediately and unconditionally” after clashes in Kosovo which injured around 30 among international soldiers. EU member states are “discussing possible steps to take if parties continue to resist proposed steps for de-escalation”, he said in Brussels, after phone talks with Kosovo’s prime minister , Albin Kurti, and the Serbian President, Alexander Vucic.
The situation remains tense on Tuesday in northern Kosovo, where Serb demonstrators are still gathered in front of the municipality of Zvecan, the scene of clashes the day before which left around thirty injured among international soldiers and fifty among the protesters. In Zvecan, soldiers in riot gear from Kfor, the multinational force led by NATO, placed a metal barrier around the town hall to prevent several hundred Serbs from accessing it, reported an AFP journalist.
NATO has announced the dispatch of new forces to northern Kosovo, where Serb protesters gathered in front of a town hall, the scene the day before of clashes which left around thirty injured among international soldiers and around 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 the security,” Admiral Stuart B. Munsch said in a statement issued in Naples, Italy.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg condemned “unacceptable” attacks at a press conference in Oslo.
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 independence 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 deemed “illegitimate” as well as that of the Kosovar police. The situation had already degenerated on Friday when the mayors came to take office accompanied by the Kosovo police.
On Monday, in a new fit of fever, Serb demonstrators tried to force the entrance door to the town hall of Zvecan but were repelled by Kosovar forces. Kfor then tried to separate the two parties before starting to disperse the most violent demonstrators. The protesters responded by throwing stones, bottles and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers.
Nineteen Hungarian soldiers 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. These attacks were described as “totally unacceptable” by NATO in Brussels. At least 52 people were injured among the ranks of Serb protesters, three of them seriously, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.
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. Kfor said it has increased its presence in the north to “reduce the risk of escalation”. “Both sides must take full responsibility for events and avoid further escalation, rather than hiding behind false rhetoric,” Kfor wrote in a statement.
Kosovo police described the situation as “fragile but calm” and called on residents “not to fall into the trap of calling for violent demonstrations and provocations”. “Security in the north of the country has deteriorated to the point of putting lives at risk. »
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 “stop its false propaganda and stop blaming the incidents in Kosovo on the desperate Serbs.” “Pristina’s unilateral decisions lead to violence against the Serbian community, which takes us away from lasting peace and stability in the region,” Aleksandar Vucic added on Instagram after meeting with Western diplomats. “The rapid withdrawal of fake mayors and members of the so-called special forces from Pristina is the condition for preserving peace in Kosovo. »
