Violence erupts in Kosovo after ethnic Serbs ban Albanian mayors from taking office

Kosovo erupted on Monday in its worst conflict this year between ethnic Serbs and Albanians as tensions escalated over a disputed election last month, killing dozens of mostly Serb protesters and injuring about 25 NATO peacekeepers. Came.

Violence erupted in Kosovo’s poll-bound north after Serb protesters tried to prevent newly elected ethnic Albanian mayors from taking office after they widely boycotted elections last month. The clashes raised fears of a deeper conflict with the potential to spread to the region as the two sides moved closer to an cooperation deal.

KFOR said Italian and Hungarian peacekeepers from NATO and the NATO-led international force KFOR were wounded by projectiles or incendiary devices as they tried to defend the city hall in the northern districts.

“While combating the most active rush of mobs, several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds, with fractures and burns caused by detonation of incendiary devices,” said KFOR. he said.

While Serbs are a small majority in Kosovo overall, they live in most of the four northern districts where elections were held in April. Serbs boycotted the vote after the central government in Pristina did not meet their demands for the establishment of a federation of Serb-majority municipal governments.

As a result, the vote ended with a turnout of less than 4 percent. As there are no participation limits in Kosovo’s elections, Albanian mayors receive votes in all four districts. As mayors tried to take office this week, Serbs, who call the election results illegitimate, tried to block them from entering municipalities.

In a live video feed from Zvecan, Hungarian KFOR peacekeepers could be seen pushing back the angry crowd. Tear gas used by both sides blows in the air as special forces are heard shouting to each other: “The crowd is throwing bottles. He only lit a torch.

Western powers condemned both the mostly Serbian mob violence and the pressure from Albanian central authorities to enforce the election results. The European Union has described the election as legal but far from “business as usual”.

NATO said the attacks on their personnel were unprovoked, adding: “Such attacks are totally unacceptable. The violence must stop immediately. We call on all parties to refrain from actions that further escalate tensions and joins the conversation.”

The Serb and Albanian sides accused each other.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic raised the army’s combat readiness to the highest level, Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said, adding that he had included “additional instructions for the deployment of army units to specific, designated positions”.

The President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, claimed that Serbia was destabilizing Kosovo.

Osmani wrote on Twitter, “Having turned Serb illegal structures into criminal gangs, attacking Kosovo police, KFOR (peacekeepers) officers and journalists.”

The US ambassador to Kosovo, Jeffrey Hovenier, met with Kosovo premier Albin Kurti and later said: “We are concerned . . . about violence against official property.

‘We have heard about attacks on journalists: we condemn it. This is not an appropriate response.’

Kurti said the violence was unacceptable, adding that “ultra-nationalist Serb graffiti on NATO vehicles is a black reminder in Kosova”, referring to Serbs spray-painting NATO vehicles with the letter Z, one used in the war in Ukraine. Russian sign.

Serbs in Kosovo have consistently denied ties to Russia, but many harbor sympathies with Moscow, Belgrade’s longtime Slavic ally.

Additional reporting by Henri Foy in Brussels