MITROVICA,
Kosovo —
Tensions were high in northern
Kosovo on Sunday after unknown attackers
exchanged gunfire with the police and threw a stun grenade at EU law enforcers
during the night.
اضافة اعلان
Hundreds of Serbs, outraged over the arrest
of a former police officer, gathered again early in the morning at the
roadblocks erected Saturday and which have paralyzed traffic through two border
crossings from Kosovo to Serbia.
Although Kosovo declared independence from
Serbia in 2008, Belgrade does not recognize it and encourages the Serb majority
in northern Kosovo to defy Pristina’s authority.
Hours after the barricades went up, police
said they suffered three successive firearm attacks on Saturday night on one of
the roads leading to the border.
“The police units, in self-defense, were
forced to respond with firearms to the criminal persons and groups, who were
repelled and left in an unknown direction,” police said in a statement.
EU police deployed in the region as part of
the rule of law mission (EULEX) said they were also targeted with a stun
grenade, but no officers were injured.
“This attack, as well as the attacks on
Kosovo Police officers, are unacceptable,” EULEX said in a press release.
EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell condemned the
attacks and called on Kosovo Serbs to “immediately” remove the barricades.
“Calm must be restored ... all actors must
avoid escalation,” Borrell tweeted.
NATO, which has deployed a 4,000-strong
peacekeeping mission in Kosovo under a UN Security Council mandate, blasted the
“unacceptable” attacks.
“Our @NATO_KFOR mission remains extremely
vigilant & fully capable of carrying out its @UN mandate in #Kosovo,”
NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu tweeted.
“We call on all parties to avoid provocative
actions and rhetoric & to contribute to calm & stability.”
Tensions mounted after Kosovo scheduled local
elections in Serb-majority municipalities for December 18, with the main Serb
political party saying it would stage a boycott.
Explosions and shootings were heard earlier
this week as election authorities tried to prepare the ground for the vote,
while an ethnic Albanian policeman was wounded.
Shortly after the roadblocks appeared, Kosovo
President Vjosa Osmani decided to postpone the elections for April 23.
The embassies of France, Germany, Italy, the
UK, and the US — along with the local EU office — welcomed the postponement,
branding it a “constructive decision” that “advances efforts to promote a more
secure situation in the north”.
Pristina and Belgrade traded accusations over
the latest incidents.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he
will ask NATO peacekeepers to allow the deployment of Serbian military and
police in Kosovo, although he said he believes there is “no chance of the
request being approved”.
Kosovo Prime Minister
Albin Kurti blamed
Serbia for “threatening Kosovo with aggression”.
“We do not want conflict, we want peace and
progress, but we will respond to aggression with all the power we have,” Kurti
warned on Facebook.
Serbs make up around 120,000 of Kosovo’s roughly 1.8
million population, which is overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian.
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