Serbs gather again in north Kosovo after clashes

ZVECAN, Kosovo: The situation in northern Kosovo remained tense on Tuesday as ethnic Serbs continued to gather in front of a town hall in Zvecan after violent clashes with North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led peacekeepers left 30 of the soldiers injured.

The NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) troops wearing full riot gear have put a metal barrier around the municipal building and are stopping several hundred Serbs from entering, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist at the scene said.

Three armored vehicles of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo police — whose presence always stirs controversy in Serb-majority northern areas — remained parked in front of the town hall.

Serbs — who account for about 6 percent of Kosovo’s population — boycotted last month’s elections in northern towns where they are in a majority, allowing ethnic Albanians to take control of local councils despite a minuscule voter turnout of below 3.5 percent.

Many Serbs are demanding the withdrawal of Kosovo police forces, as well as the ethnic Albanian mayors they do not consider their true representatives.

Tensions flared after Serbs tried to force their way into the town hall on Monday, but were repelled as Kosovo police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd.

KFOR tried at first to separate protesters from the police, but later started to disperse the crowd using shields and batons. Protesters responded by hurling rocks, bottles and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers.

Thirty peacekeepers in all were wounded in the clashes, including “fractures and burns from improvised explosive incendiary devices,” KFOR said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said 52 demonstrators were hurt, three of them “seriously.” Five Serbs were arrested for taking part in the clashes, Kosovo police said.

‘Unprovoked attacks’

KFOR said the soldiers responded “to the unprovoked attacks of a violent and dangerous crowd” while carrying out its mandate impartially.

“To avoid the clashes between the parties and to minimize the risk of the escalation, KFOR peacekeepers prevented threats to the lives of Kosovo Serbs and Kosovo Albanians,” KFOR said.

“Both parties need to take full responsibility for what happened and prevent any further escalation, rather than hide behind false narratives,” it added.

Kosovo police described the situation in the north on Tuesday as “fragile but calm,” and called on citizens “not to fall prey to calls for violent protests and provocations.”

“The security situation in the north of the country has escalated and degraded to the point of endangering people’s lives,” they said.

NATO strongly condemned the attacks against KFOR troops, saying such actions were “totally unacceptable.”

Nineteen of the wounded soldiers belonged to a Hungarian KFOR contingent. Four of them needed hospital treatment “due to shrapnel injuries” and one soldier needed to be operated on, but “none of them is in a life-threatening condition,” Hungarian Ambassador to Kosovo Jozsef Bencze said.

Belgrade placed its army on high alert last week when tensions flared, and ordered forces toward the frontier with Kosovo.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and Belgrade and its allies Beijing and Moscow have refused to recognize it, effectively preventing Kosovo from having a seat at the United Nations.

Serbs in Kosovo remained largely loyal to Belgrade, especially in the north, where they make up a majority and reject every move by Pristina to consolidate its control over the region.