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Heavy police forces and armored vehicles are deployed in the village of Banjska in Kosovo.
CNN –
Long-fractured relations between Kosovo and Serbia are once again on the rocks after one of the worst outbreaks of violence in years.
The trigger for the latest outbreak was the murder of a Kosovo police officer and the subsequent shooting in a monastery last weekend. However, the roots of the tensions go back to the 1990s and the breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
The White House is concerned, warning of an “unprecedented” buildup of advanced Serbian artillery, tanks and mechanized infantry units near the border with Kosovo and calling for “immediate de-escalation.”
CNN takes a close look at the factors involved.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, following the 1998–99 war in which Kosovo Albanians attempted to break away from the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, consisting of modern-day Serbia and Montenegro. The war was the culmination of decades of ethnic tensions between the region’s Albanian and Serb communities.
During the war, NATO intervened to protect Kosovo’s Albanian majority.
Ognen Teofilovski/Portal
A Kosovar police officer stands guard in front of a vehicle with a broken window in Banjska.
More than 20 years later, a fragile peace reigns in Kosovo, while Serbia still does not recognize Kosovo’s independence. The Serbian minority in Kosovo sees itself as part of Serbia and considers Belgrade, not Pristina, to be its capital.
The majority of Kosovo Serbs – less than a tenth of the total population – live in the northern regions and are increasingly demanding more autonomy from the Albanian ethnic group.
Disputes remain over the level of autonomy of the Serb minority, with the ethnic group sometimes responding with violent resistance to moves by Pristina that they view as anti-Serbian.
A clash between police and around 30 heavily armed Serbian men last Sunday was sparked by an ambush that left one Kosovar police officer dead and another injured.
In the subsequent shootout in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo, police said they killed three armed attackers and arrested another. According to police, some of the shootings occurred near a Serbian Orthodox monastery.
Authorities previously said they found “logistical equipment, suspected military vehicles, military uniforms, and weapons and ammunition of various calibers” in a residential area used by the attackers.
Like other villages in the north, Banjska is predominantly Serbian.
In a post on Facebook on Sunday morning, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the shooting in Banjska as a “terrorist attack” carried out by “Serbian criminal gangs.”
Sunday’s outbreak of violence follows unrest in May in which dozens of NATO peacekeepers were injured after they were attacked by ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo.
Following a disputed election in April, violence erupted after Serb protesters tried to prevent newly elected ethnic Albanian mayors from taking office in the northern town of Zvecan.
Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani pointed the finger at Belgrade for inciting Sunday’s violence.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denies the allegations and argues that Serbia would not benefit from anything that would jeopardize its position in EU-sponsored normalization talks with Pristina, Portal reported.
Vucic also condemned Kosovo police for shooting one of the gunmen in the head “from a distance of one meter” after he surrendered, describing it as an “execution,” according to Portal. He pledged to investigate the events surrounding the violence, including the origin of the weapons confiscated by Kosovo police after the incident.
Visar Kryeziu/AP
Kosovo police officers show confiscated weapons and military equipment during the police operation in Banjska.
In a separate development, a top Kosovo Serb politician, Milan Radoicic, said he took part in the shooting, Portal reported.
In a letter sent to Portal by his lawyer, Radoicic, who is wanted in Kosovo and lives in neighboring Serbia, said he had “personally prepared the logistics for the defense of the Serbian people” and received no help from Serbian authorities.
The White House has warned that the incident poses a threat to the security of not only Kosovo personnel, but also international personnel, including NATO troops.
“According to the Kosovo authorities, at least 30 people were involved in this attack, which resulted in the death of a police sergeant, a Kosovo police sergeant,” National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby told reporters on Friday.
“This is not an attack carried out randomly, ad hoc or by a small group. The quantity and type of weapons found pose a threat not only to Kosovo personnel, but also to international personnel, including NATO troops.”
He added that the US is currently monitoring a major Serbian military operation along the border with Kosovo.
“We believe this is a very destabilizing development and has largely taken place over the last week or so. And we call on Serbia to withdraw these troops from the border and help lower the temperature,” he said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said additional troops had been approved for Kosovo after the deadly shooting and also called for de-escalation.