[1/6] Members of Kosovo’s special police guard municipal offices in Zvecan after ethnic Serb protesters tried to prevent a newly elected ethnic Albanian mayor from entering the office in Zvecan, Kosovo May 27, 2023.Portal/Ognen Teofilovski
BRUSSELS, May 27 (Portal) – NATO on Saturday urged Kosovo to ease tensions with Serbia, a day after its government violently seized municipal buildings to install mayors in ethnic Serb areas in the north of the country.
The resulting clashes on Friday between Kosovan police and protesters opposing the ethnic Albanian mayors prompted Serbia to put its army on full combat readiness and move units closer to the border.
“We urge the institutions in Kosovo to de-escalate immediately and call on all parties to resolve the situation through dialogue,” Oana Lungescu, a spokeswoman for the transatlantic military alliance, said in a Twitter post.
She said KFOR, the 3,800-strong NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo, will remain vigilant.
Tension continued in the north of the country, where heavily armed police in armored vehicles guarded community buildings.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti defended the police’s actions in escorting the new mayors the day before.
“It is the right of those elected in democratic elections to take office without threats or intimidation. It is also the right of citizens to be served by these elected officials,” Kurti said on Twitter on Saturday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday criticized Kurti’s government for its actions in the north, saying it “unnecessarily increased tensions, undermined our efforts to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia and will have consequences for our bilateral relationship with Kosovo.” .” “
Almost a decade after the end of the war, Serbs in the northern region of Kosovo do not accept Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and still regard Belgrade as their capital.
Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in Kosovo, with Serbs making up the majority only in the northern region.
Reporting by Sabine Siebold; additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina; Writing Foo Yun Chee; Edited by Conor Humphries
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