In the northern parts of Kosovo, violent protests have continued over the weekend. On Monday, it degenerated when 25 military police from NATO’s Kfor peacekeeping force were injured by Molotov cocktails and stones thrown at them by protesters.
The EU’s police and customs operation Eulex, of which Lars-Gunnar Wigemark is the head, ended up in the middle of the conflict on Friday.
– What was a spontaneous protest degenerated into violence against Eulex, then we were at the front line. Today it was Kfor that was on the front line, he says.
A vacuum since November
According to Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, they had intelligence that prepared them that the protests could become violent. He says that the conflict has roots that go back a long way, but that several things also happened in the short term that can explain that this is happening now.
The demonstrations are based on the fact that the Serbian population of northern Kosovo boycotted the local elections in April, which led to the mayorships of four regions going to Kosovo Albanians – despite the fact that the Albanian population of northern Kosovo is a minority.
Wigemark also highlights that Kosovo Serb police officers chose to resign in protest last November. Which may have contributed to the unrest as it created a vacuum for security in the region.
Can continue tomorrow
Going forward, Lars-Gunnar Wigemark hopes that the situation will be scaled down. But at the same time he is prepared for the violence to continue.
– If the new mayors insist on continuing to go back to their offices, it is clearly a red flag for the local Serbs who perceive them as illegitimate. We know that it can lead to this kind of violence and tension that we have seen today, he says.