Concern is high in northern Kosovo right now, after several days of violent clashes between protesters and police.
– It usually calms down, but it’s dangerous to say it that way. What can happen is that something happens that leads to an escalation, says Christoffer Wendick in Aktuellt.
Serbia putting the army on high alert has happened many times before, and historically the level of conflict has been reduced through talks. But now there is concern that the violence will escalate further. Wendick describes the relationship between Kosovo and Serbia as a rollercoaster.
– And there we see a kind of maximum depth right now, he says.
New demonstrations are expected
The reason the conflict flared up again is the local elections recently held in Kosovo, which were boycotted by the ethnic Serbs. Kosovo Albanian mayors were elected with only a 3.5 percent voter turnout – seen by Kosovo Serbs as a government without legitimacy.
At the installation of the new mayors on Friday, riots broke out between the local police and the Kosovo Serbs. The NATO peacekeeping force that has been in place in Kosovo since 1999 has also been drawn into the violence in the town of Zvecan, when on Monday they walked between the protesters and the local police, and both NATO soldiers and protesters were injured.
During Tuesday it was calmer in Zvecan, but new demonstrations are expected during Wednesday, according to Wendick.
– The protesters have said that they will resume and come there again tomorrow, he says.