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Kosovo’s foreign ministry has sent a letter to EU member countries urging them to take action against Serbia and urging Brussels to cooperate in peacefully resolving tensions that have been sparked in the north of the country. The document, reports news site Dukagjini, calls on the international community to urge Serbia to return to dialogue and lists recent incidents in the northern region in chronological order.
“At best, Serbia is deliberately trying to destabilize Kosovo in order to prevent it from advancing dialogue, especially in the context of the new plan proposed by the EU (backed by France and Germany) to normalize relations,” it said in the letter, according to Dukagjini and Kosovo Online.
The appeal to Brussels comes at the same time as Moscow’s stance in favor of Serbia. The Kremlin has declared that it supports Belgrade “in its moves in Kosovo” and dismissed as “absolutely false” rumors of Russia’s “destructive influence” on the Serbian authorities.
The letter: Serbs behave like they did in the 1990s
The document argues that the escalation of attacks is reminiscent of the way Serbian authorities began armed conflicts in the 1990s. The letter would also summarize the clashes that have emerged since December 10, from the building of barricades by the Serbian municipality of Mitrovica, a town in northern Kosovo, to the attacks on journalists by Kosovar media. “We strongly condemn extremist attacks on journalists in northern Kosovo. In the past three weeks, journalists have been repeatedly attacked by criminal groups trying to destabilize Kosovo,” Kosovar Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla-Schwarz said on social media. “The international community urgently needs to take action against Belgrade and protect the free media. This story has to end. Now,” he added.
