NATO and the EU have demanded the parties to avoid provocations. This time, the protests broke out due to the arrest of a former policeman of Serbian background.
In Kosovo, relations between Serbs and Albanians are tense after the weekend unrest.
Trucks driven by Serbian activists to block traffic remained on the roads of northern Kosovo until Monday evening. This is despite the fact that the EU and the United States have tried to calm the situation and demanded the opening of the roads.
In this article, we summarized the last twists and turns of events in Kosovo.
What happened at the weekend?
Kosovo Serb activists used trucks and buses to block roads leading to two border crossings in northern Kosovo over the weekend.
The border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia were still closed on Monday.
The latest unrest erupted after Kosovo police arrested a former police officer of Serbian origin on Saturday. The man is suspected of the attack on the election commission’s office in North Mitrovica.
Serbian activists and, among others, the president of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić demanding the release of the police.
On Saturday, Serbian protesters, among other things, threw a stun grenade at an armored patrol vehicle of the EULEX mission near the village of Rudare.
In the Serb-majority north of Kosovo, near the border with Serbia, there were also exchanges of gunfire between police and Serb groups. According to the Kosovo police, policemen were shot at in several locations. The police responded to the shooting.
How has the situation been reacted to?
The military alliance NATO and the EU have demanded that the parties avoid provocations. Serbian President Vučić said he wanted to calm the situation after meeting with the Serbian National Security Council.
Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurtin behind the unrest are criminal gangs. Already over the weekend, Kurti demanded that NATO peacekeeping forces remove the obstacles placed by the Serbs on the roads.
Tensions started to rise already last week, when Kosovo transferred police officers from the capital Pristina to the Serbian areas of the country. Afterwards, Serbian President Vučić accused Kosovo of violating the peace accords and threatened to send Serbian police to the region.
However, after the Serbian Security Council meeting, Vučić called on Kosovo Serbs to refrain from clashes with NATO and EU peacekeepers.
According to the Serbian leadership, the Kosovo police have nothing to do with the Serbian areas of Kosovo. Many Kosovo Serbs do not recognize the Pristina regime.
In the Serbian region, local elections were to be held in four municipalities next Sunday, but the President of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani-Sadriu announced the postponement of the elections to April due to security concerns.
What happened before?
Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia were already tense last summer. At that time, too, in Kosovo, they shot and blocked roads.
The dispute was about car license plates. Serbia demanded that Kosovars in Serbia use Serbian shields. Then Kosovo started demanding the same from the Serbs, i.e. using Kosovar shields in Kosovo.
Kosovo also announced the tightening of entry regulations for Serbs. At the end of November, the countries announced that they had settled the dispute concerning license plates.
There is an ongoing dispute between Kosovo and Serbia over how the countries treat each other’s citizens. Kosovo became independent from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia has still not recognized the independence.
Of the 1.8 million inhabitants of the Albanian-majority Kosovo, 120,000 are Serbs.