a police officer killed, another injured, in an attack

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The authorities in Pristina condemned an act “ terrorist » and accused the “ organized crime supported by officials in Belgrade “. The two police officers were patrolling near a road reported as blocked when “ the unit was attacked from different positions with heavy weapons, notably with grenades », Indicates a police press release.

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, immediately denounced an attack “ led by professionals, masked and equipped with heavy weapons. We condemn this criminal and terrorist attack “, he wrote on social networks. “ Organized crime, with financial and logistical support from Belgrade officials, attacks our country “. “ This is an attack on Kosovo », added the president, Vjosa Osmani. “ These attacks prove, if necessary, the destabilizing power of criminal gangs, organized by Serbia, who have been destabilizing Kosovo and the region for a long time. “, she wrote in a statement, calling on Kosovo’s allies to support the country “ in its efforts to establish peace and order and preserve sovereignty over the entire Republic of Kosovo “.

From crisis to crisis

Serbia, supported in particular by its Russian and Chinese allies, refuses to recognize the independence of its former province, whose population of 1.8 million inhabitants, overwhelmingly of Albanian origin, includes a Serbian community of around 120,000 people, who live mainly in northern Kosovo. Since a conflict which left 13,000 dead, mostly Kosovar Albanians, relations between the two former enemies have gone from crisis to crisis. Northern Kosovo is thus the scene of recurring unrest: tension there suddenly increased in May 2023 when the Kosovar authorities decided to appoint Albanian mayors in four municipalities with a Serbian majority.

The decision triggered one of the worst episodes in the history of tensions in the north of the country in years, with protests, the arrest of three Kosovar police officers by Serbia and a violent riot by Serbian demonstrators that caused more thirty injured among NATO peacekeeping forces. The international community has urged both parties to de-escalate on several occasions, and stressed that the accession to the European Union of Belgrade and Pristina could be jeopardized by these renewed violence.

Failure of discussion attempts

But ten days ago, the latest attempts at discussions between the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, failed after just a few hours. The Serbian side wishes, as a prerequisite for any discussion, to obtain a form of association of Serbian communities in the north, while the Kosovar side has as a prerequisite recognition by Belgrade of the independence of Kosovo. In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last week, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused the West of hypocrisy, arguing that recognition of Kosovo was based on the same arguments Russia used to invade Ukraine.

(With AFP)

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