Tension continues to mount in northern Kosovo. The region, inferno of the conflict born in 2008 with the unilateral independence of Kosovo, regularly experiences flare-ups. But for the past few days, the strongest violence known for years has been taking place in this former Serbian region, in which NATO mediation remains important. Monday, May 28, around thirty members of the international force installed by the Atlantic Alliance were injured in clashes with Serb demonstrators. The latter are demanding the departure of four Albanian mayors in the predominantly Serb area of Kosovo and an end to the “occupation” of the territory by the Kosovo police. The Serbian government in Belgrade also reports more than fifty wounded among the protesters.
A first demonstration triggers a state of alert in Serbia
The outbreak of fever began last Friday, May 26, when Serb demonstrators gathered in the north of the country, near the border, to protest against the assumption of office by Albanian mayors in this former province of Serbia. While some 120,000 Serbs live in Kosovo, with a population of 1.8 million, the vast majority of whom are Albanians, the four villages concerned are inhabited by a majority of Serbs. After a mass resignation of the latter from the local institutions of the region in November, the central power had decided to organize municipal elections in an attempt to put an end to the institutional vacuum. The city councilors had then been appointed in April following elections that were largely boycotted by the Serbs in the territory: only some 1,500 voters, out of approximately 45,000 registered voters, took part (i.e. a turnout of approximately 3.5 %).
These first gatherings, quickly dispersed with tear gas by the Kosovar police, caused some minor injuries among the demonstrators. From Belgrade, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic immediately asks his army to be placed on “maximum alert”, as has happened many times in recent years (the last time in December). Without waiting, he also asks the military “to get moving” in the direction of the border, Radio Télévision Suisse (RTS) reported on Friday.
Despite immediate rebukes and calls from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany to Kosovo “to immediately reverse [sa] decision” and “to calm the situation”, as well as a request from NATO which demands from Friday “an immediate de-escalation”, Pristina does not react. “These measures have exacerbated tensions for free, undermining our efforts to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia and will have consequences for our bilateral relations with Kosovo,” State Secretary Antony Blinken said in a statement.
The situation flares up on May 29
The incident repeated itself on Monday, May 29, when protesters gathered again to demand the withdrawal of special police forces deployed in the region for several days. During the weekend, the Kosovar forces which allowed the mayors to enter their offices continued to be stationed in the villages in question. After new clashes between the Kosovo police and demonstrators in Zvecan, where a group of Serbs are trying to enter the town hall, the fifty or so soldiers of the NATO force in Kosovo (Kfor) – which had announced that they had “reinforced his presence” after the first clashes – initially tried to separate the two parties before starting to disperse the crowd, according to AFP journalists present on the spot.
Thirty soldiers, including nineteen Hungarian soldiers and 11 Italians from the NATO force, were then “the target of unprovoked attacks and suffered traumatic injuries with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices “by” containing the most active fringes of the crowd”, announces at the end of the day the Kfor in a press release.
The international community calls for peace
Violence immediately and “firmly” condemned by NATO, through its spokesman Jens Stollenberg from Oslo on Tuesday May 30, who called for the clashes to “stop immediately”. The transatlantic alliance has also announced the dispatch of new forces to the north of the country. “The deployment of additional NATO forces in Kosovo is a prudent measure to ensure that Kfor [NDLR : la force emmenée par l’Alliance dans l’ex-province serbe] has the capabilities it needs to maintain security,” a NATO admiral said on Tuesday.
Several of its members also spoke individually on Monday and Tuesday. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called these attacks on European soldiers “absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible”. “We will not tolerate further attacks against Kfor. It is fundamental to avoid further unilateral actions by the Kosovar authorities and that all parties take an immediate step back to reduce tensions,” he said. she added in a statement. France also “condemns this violence in the strongest terms,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement, calling on Belgrade and Pristina to return “to the negotiating table with an attitude of compromise.” “We cannot tolerate regional stability being endangered in such a critical international context. This is a matter of European security,” he added.
While the situation there is now described as “fragile but calm” by the Kosovo police, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic met on Tuesday May 30 in Belgrade with the ambassadors of the Quinte, five member powers of NATO who are closely observing the Western Balkans. He called on them to pressure Pristina into accepting what he called a “small condition”, citing “the withdrawal from northern Kosovo of special police forces from Pristina and the sidelining of fake mayors who really represent no one”.
“I can’t believe the most powerful Western countries can’t get it filled,” he said in an Instagram video. Other Serbian public figures have spoken out on the subject, such as tennis champion Novak Djokovic. “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia! Stop the violence,” said the world number 3 on Monday after a match at Roland-Garros. Serbian leader Aleksandar Vucic also announced that he would soon meet with representatives of Russia and China, as Moscow on Tuesday denounced “false propaganda” from the West concerning the violence in the north of the country, calling to put an end to it and to stop “throwing the blame for the incidents in Kosovo on the Serbs driven to despair”.