LEPOSAVIC, Kosovo, May 29 (Reuters) – Around 25 NATO peacekeeping soldiers defending three city halls in northern Kosovo had been injured in clashes with Serb protesters on Monday, whereas Serbia’s president put the military on the very best degree of fight alert.
KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission to Kosovo, condemned the violence.
“While countering the most active fringes of the crowd, several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices,” it mentioned in an announcement.
Hungary’s protection minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky mentioned that 7 Hungarian soldiers had been critically injured and that they are going to be taken to Hungary for remedy. He mentioned 20 soldiers had been injured. Italian soldiers had been additionally injured in clashes.
“What is happening is absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible,” Italy’s Giorgia Meloni mentioned in an announcement. “It is vital to avoid further unilateral actions on the part of the Kosovar authorities and that all the parties in question immediately take a step back to ease the tensions.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic mentioned that 52 Serbs had been injured, three of them critically.
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani accused Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic of destabilising Kosovo.
“Serb illegal structures turned into criminal gangs have attacked Kosovo police, KFOR (peacekeeping) officers & journalists. Those who carry out Vucic’s orders to destabilise the north of Kosovo, must face justice,” Osmani tweeted.
Vucic accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of making tensions. He known as on Serbs in Kosovo to keep away from clashes with NATO soldiers.
The tense state of affairs developed after ethnic Albanian mayors took workplace in northern Kosovo’s Serb majority space after elections the Serbs boycotted – a transfer that led the U.S. and its allies to rebuke Pristina on Friday.
In Zvecan, one of many cities, Kosovo police – staffed by ethnic Albanians after Serbs stop the drive final yr – sprayed pepper gasoline to repel a crowd of Serbs who broke by a safety barricade and tried to drive their method into the municipality constructing, witnesses mentioned.
Serb protesters in Zvecan threw tear gasoline and stun grenades at NATO soldiers. Serbs additionally clashed with police in Zvecan and spray-painted NATO autos with the letter “Z”, referring to a Russian signal used in battle in Ukraine.
In Leposavic, near the border with Serbia, U.S. peacekeeping troops in riot gear positioned barbed wire across the city corridor to guard it from tons of of indignant Serbs.
Later in the day protesters threw eggs at a parked automobile belonging to the brand new Leposavic mayor.
Vucic, who’s the commander-in-chief of the Serbian armed forces, raised the military’s fight readiness to the very best degree, Defence Minister Milos Vucevic informed reporters.
[1/11] Local Kosovo Serb protesters sit on the bottom in entrance of NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) soldiers in the city of Zvecan, Kosovo, May 29, 2023. REUTERS/Laura Hasani
“This implies that immediately before 2:00 p.m. (1200 GMT), the Serbian Armed Forces’ Chief of the General Staff issued additional instructions for the deployment of the army’s units in specific, designated positions,” Vucevic mentioned, with out elaborating.
NATO peacekeepers additionally blocked off the city corridor in Zubin Potok to guard it from indignant native Serbs, witnesses mentioned.
Igor Simic, deputy head of the Serb List, the most important Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb social gathering, accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of fuelling tensions in the north.
“We are interested in peace. Albanians who live here are interested in peace, and only he (Kurti) wants to make chaos,” Simic informed reporters in Zvecan.
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Serbs, who comprise a majority in Kosovo’s north, have by no means accepted its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and nonetheless see Belgrade as their capital greater than 20 years after the Kosovo Albanian rebellion towards repressive Serbian rule.
Ethnic Albanians make up greater than 90% of the inhabitants in Kosovo as a complete, however northern Serbs have lengthy demanded the implementation of an EU-brokered 2013 deal for the creation of an affiliation of autonomous municipalities in their space.
Serbs refused to participate in native elections in April and ethnic Albanian candidates received the mayoralties in 4 Serb-majority municipalities – together with North Mitrovica, the place no incidents had been reported on Monday – with a 3.5% turnout.
Serbs demand that the Kosovo authorities take away ethnic Albanian mayors from city halls and permit native administrations financed by Belgrade resume their work.
On Friday, three out of the 4 ethnic Albanian mayors had been escorted into their workplaces by police, who had been pelted with rocks and responded with tear gasoline and water cannon to disperse the protesters.
The United States and its allies, which have strongly backed Kosovo’s independence, rebuked Pristina on Friday, saying imposing mayors in Serb-majority areas with out common assist undercut efforts to normalise relations.
Kurti defended Pristina’s place, tweeting after a weekend telephone name with the European Union’s overseas coverage chief: “Emphasized that elected mayors will provide services to all citizens.”
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic informed RTS it was “not possible to have mayors who have not been elected by Serbs in Serb-majority municipalities”.
After assembly Kurti, U.S. ambassador to Kosovo Jeffrey Hovenier informed reporters: “We are concerned about reports today about violence against official property.”
“We’ve seen pictures of graffiti against KFOR cars and police cars, we’ve heard about attacks on journalists, we condemn that, that is not appropriate response.”
Reporting by Fatos Bytici; Additional reporting by Miodrag Draskic and Angelo Amante in Rome; Writing by Ivana Sekularac and Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Mark Heinrich, Giles Elgood and Mark Potter
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