Tensions rose in northern Kosovo after unknown assailants exchanged gunfire with police overnight and threw a stun grenade at European Union officials.
Hundreds of ethnic Serbs, outraged by the arrest of a former police officer, gathered early Sunday at roadblocks they had set up the previous day, crippling traffic at two border crossings from Kosovo to Serbia.
Although Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, Belgrade does not recognize it and encourages the Serbian community in northern Kosovo to oppose Pristina’s authority.
Hours after the barricades were built, police said they had suffered three consecutive attacks on one of the roads leading to the border on Saturday evening.
“In self-defense, police units were forced to respond with firearms to the criminal individuals and groups, which were repelled and abandoned in an unknown direction,” police said in a statement.
The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) said they were also targeted with a stun grenade, but no officials were injured.
“This attack, as well as the attacks on police officers in Kosovo, is unacceptable,” EULEX said in a press release.
EULEX — which has around 134 Polish, Italian and Lithuanian police officers deployed in the north — called on “those responsible to refrain from further provocative actions,” and urged Kosovo institutions to “bring the perpetrators to justice.”
“Masked criminals”
Hostility has increased after Kosovo scheduled local elections for December 18 in four Serb-majority municipalities in the north. The main Serbian political party announced that it would organise a boycott.
Explosions and shootings were heard earlier this week as election authorities tried to prepare the ground for the election. An Albanian police officer was wounded after law enforcement agencies were deployed in the region.
“The barricades for masked criminals in the north must be removed immediately,” Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said in a statement.
He added that his government had contacted the NATO peacekeeping mission, which has more than 3,000 troops on the ground.
Elections were pending in North Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Zvecan and Leposavic after ethnic Serbian representatives resigned from office in November to protest against the Kosovan government’s decision to ban vehicle license plates issued in Serbia. Serbian lawmakers, public prosecutors and police officers also gave up offices in local governments.
To defuse tensions, Kosovo decided on Saturday to postpone elections after President Vjosa Osmani met her country’s political leaders and decided to hold elections in northern communities on April 23, 2023.
The embassies of France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the United States, as well as the local EU office, welcomed the delay and described it as a “constructive decision” that “advances efforts to promote a safer situation in the North.”
Kosovo’s police presence was recently increased in these areas, and EULEX was also present with its police officers.
“With determination and determination”
Hostility remains high, and Serbia and Kosovo are intensifying their exchanges.
“We don’t want conflict. We want peace and progress, but we will do everything we can to respond to aggression,” Kurti wrote on social media. “Let me make one thing clear: The Republic of Kosovo will defend itself — vigorously and decisively.”
Kurti told the EU and the US that failure to denounce such violence, which he said was orchestrated by Belgrade, “would destabilize Kosovo.”
On Saturday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he would formally apply for NATO approval to deploy Serbian troops in northern Kosovo, but acknowledged that it was highly unlikely that this would be granted. Such a step could dramatically exacerbate the already high tensions.
Serbian government officials claim that a UN resolution that officially ended the country’s bloody crackdown against the majority of Kosovo Albanian separatists in 1999 allows around 1,000 Serbian troops to return to Kosovo.
NATO bombed Serbia to end the war and drive its troops out of Kosovo.