[1/2] Kosovo police special forces guard municipal offices in Zvecan after Serb protesters prevented a newly elected ethnic Albanian mayor from entering the office in Zvecan, Kosovo, May 27, 2023.Portal/Ognen Teofilovski
BRUSSELS, May 28 (Portal) – NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg on Sunday urged Kosovo to ease tensions with Serbia, two days after violent clashes between Kosovar police and protesters opposed to Albanian mayors taking office in Serb-held areas population group.
Stoltenberg, the Norwegian secretary-general of the transatlantic military alliance, said he had spoken to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell about Kosovo.
He said Pristina and Belgrade must participate in the EU-led dialogue.
“Pristina must de-escalate and not take unilateral, destabilizing steps,” Stoltenberg said in a tweet.
Serbs, who make up the majority of the population in the northern region of Kosovo, do not accept Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and still consider Belgrade their capital more than two decades after the end of the war in 1999.
Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in all of Kosovo.
Serbs refused to vote in April’s municipal elections, and Albanian candidates won all four municipalities with a turnout of 3.5%.
Local Serbs backed by Belgrade said they would not accept the mayors and would not represent them.
Three out of four mayors were escorted to their offices by police on Friday. Protesters threw rocks at authorities, who responded with tear gas and water cannons to disperse the angry crowd.
The situation remained tense on Sunday as heavily armed police in armored vehicles continued to guard the mayor’s offices.
Reporting by Sabine Siebold, text by Foo Yun Chee; Edited by Sharon Singleton
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