Violence erupted on Monday on the fringes of protests demanding the resignation of newly elected Kosovar Albanian mayors in a Serb-majority region.
New tensions have plagued Kosovo for several days. Clashes on the fringes of demonstrations in the north of the small Balkan country on Monday, May 29 injured several dozen civilians and soldiers from the international NATO force present at the scene. At the heart of this mobilization, led by members of Kosovo’s Serb minority, is the recent controversial election of a former Serb as mayor of the Albanian community, which represents most of the country’s population, in Serb-majority cities in an area that proclaimed its independence in 2008. As protesters gather again in one of these cities on Tuesday, Franceinfo takes stock of what we know about this renewed violence.
Many injured soldiers and demonstrators
On Monday, the Kosovar police broke up protests with tear gas. The President of neighboring Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, accuses him of injuring at least 52 Kosovo Serbs, three of them seriously. In particular, he asserted that a 50-year-old man had been shot and injured by “special forces” police.
Members of the international force (KFOR) led by NATO in Kosovo were also injured in these clashes on Monday, the organization said on Monday evening. A new balance sheet press release Tuesday (link in English) reports 30 wounded in its ranks. These soldiers were deployed in four communities in the north “to contain the ongoing violent demonstrations”. They “were the target of unprovoked attacks and suffered traumatic injuries including fractures and burns from the explosion of incendiary devices,” according to the press release of Kfor, which has been present in Kosovo since 1999 and whose mandate was granted by a United Nations Security Council resolution .
According to the command of the NATO forces, the wounded are 11 Italian soldiers and 19 Hungarian soldiers. Seven of the latter were seriously injured, according to the Hungarian Defense Ministry, as were three of the Italians wounded, according to the Italian Foreign Ministry. Three of the Hungarians were injured by guns, says Kfor.
Two Kosovar media teams also claimed that protesters slashed the tires of their vehicles and spray-painted them. A situation classified as “very worrying” by the Kosovo Journalists’ Association.
Serbian military on high alert
After the first clashes in three places in Kosovo on Friday, notably in the municipality of Zveçan, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic put the army on “high alert” and sent it “on the move” towards the border with Kosovo. The United States, France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Germany called on Serbia to “immediately reverse its decision”.
On Saturday morning, Aleksandar Vucic chaired a session of the National Security Committee, which adopted a plan containing “security activities (…) to strengthen Serbia’s defense capabilities,” the presidency announced. However, the situation is not new: in recent years, the Serbian army has been put on alert several times.
For its part, the international force (KFOR) led by NATO in Kosovo said it was “increasing its presence in northern Kosovo” while urging the two countries to resume dialogue.
A reaction to disputed elections
Kosovo, a former Serbian province whose independence it proclaimed in 2008 was never recognized by Belgrade, is the scene of regular tensions between the Albanian community (which makes up more than 90% of the country’s population) and the Serb community (the majority in the north). , near the border with Serbia). Latest episode: the holding of contentious local elections on April 23 in four towns in northern Kosovo.
The election was largely boycotted, with turnout below 3.5%. But the victorious Albanian mayors were installed by the Kosovan government despite calls for appeasement from the European Union and the United States. They took office on Friday, which angered Serbian protesters. The actions of the Kosovo police, armed with rifles and armored vehicles, also added to the tension, reports the BBC.
Strong international reactions
The violence against KFOR soldiers was described by NATO as “completely unacceptable”. “The violence must stop immediately,” demanded the Atlantic Alliance. Faced with these tensions, the US ambassador and the European Union envoy called the Albanian mayors to a meeting in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. The head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borrell, also described the acts of violence against KFOR, the media, civilians and the police as “absolutely unacceptable”.
France said it “strongly condemns this violence” and called on “all parties, particularly the government of Kosovo, to take immediate action to defuse tensions”.
For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov supported the Serbs and assured them that they were “fighting for their rights”. These clashes in the region even sparked reactions on the Roland-Garros squares on Monday: Serbian star Novak Djokovic wrote in front of a competition camera: “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia! Stop the violence”.