NATO Soldiers On Guard In Kosovo Town
Serbian protesters smashed two cars belonging to journalists in Kosovo’s Leposavic town on Tuesday, a day after 30 NATO soldiers and 52 protesters were hurt in clashes, as EU and NATO officials urged a de-escalation of the violence.
Unrest in the region has intensified since ethnic Albanian mayors took office in northern Kosovo’s Serb-majority area after April elections that the Serbs boycotted, a move that led the U.S. and its allies to rebuke Pristina on Friday.
NATO said in a statement it would send additional forces to Kosovo to curb the violence, adding it “has directed the deployment of the Operational Reserve Forces, ORF, for the Western Balkans.”
Masked men smashed the windshield of a car with an Albanian licence plate marked as “A2, CNN affiliate,” a Reuters reporter who witnessed the incident said. A separate car belonging to another media outlet was smashed as well. No one was injured.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged Kosovo and Serbian leaders to find a way to de-escalate tensions through dialogue.
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“We have too much violence already in Europe today, we cannot afford another conflict,” Borrell told a news briefing in Brussels.
Northern Kosovo’s majority Serbs have never accepted Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and consider Belgrade their capital more than two decades after the Kosovo Albanian uprising against repressive Serbian rule.
Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in Kosovo as a whole, but northern Serbs have long demanded the implementation of an EU-brokered 2013 deal for the creation of an association of autonomous municipalities in their area.
Serbs refused to take part in local elections in April, and ethnic Albanian candidates won the mayoralties in four Serb-majority municipalities with a 3.5% turnout.
Russia, which has long had close ties with Serbia and shares its Slavic and Orthodox Christian traditions, called on Tuesday for “decisive steps” to quell the unrest in Kosovo.”
