Municipal elections under tension in Kosovo. The situation is still tense Tuesday in the north of the country where Serb demonstrators continue to flock to the municipality of Zvecan. The day before, the city was the scene of violent clashes that left around thirty injured among international soldiers and fifty among the protesters. Update on the latest events.
Election marred by violence
The Serbs boycotted the April municipal elections in these localities, which resulted in the election of Albanian mayors with a turnout of less than 3.5%. These city councilors were enthroned last week by the government of Albin Kurti, the Prime Minister of this territory largely populated by Albanians, ignoring the calls for appeasement launched by the European Union and the United States. .
Serbia, supported by its Russian and Chinese allies, has never recognized the independence proclaimed in 2008 by its former province and tensions regularly erupt between Belgrade and Pristina. Some 120,000 Serbs live in Kosovo (which has a population of 1.8 million), of whom about a third live in the north. The demonstrators demand the departure of the Albanian mayors whom they describe as “illegitimate” and that of the Kosovo police.
Tensions for several days
Soldiers in riot gear from Kfor, the multinational force led by NATO, placed a metal barrier around the town hall on Tuesday to prevent several hundred Serbs from accessing it. Three armored vehicles of the Kosovo police, whose presence still arouses the ire of the majority Serbs in four localities in northern Kosovo, were parked in front of the town hall.
The situation had already degenerated on Friday when the mayors came to take office accompanied by the police. On Monday in Zvecan, the Serb demonstrators were initially repelled by Kosovar forces who used tear gas. Kfor then tried to separate the two parties before starting to disperse the crowd. Protesters responded by throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers.
Several injured
Nineteen Hungarian and eleven Italian soldiers were injured in the clashes, Kfor said in a statement on Tuesday, adding that they suffered in particular from “fractures and burns caused by improvised incendiary explosive devices. “Three Hungarian soldiers were injured by firearms,” according to the same source. These attacks were described as “totally unacceptable” by NATO in Brussels. At least 52 people were injured in the ranks of the Serb demonstrators, three of them seriously, said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Five Serb demonstrators were arrested, according to Kosovo police. Belgrade has ordered the Serbian army to be on high alert, as has been the regular case in recent years. Kfor said it had increased its presence in the north to “reduce the risk of escalation” after newly elected mayors tried to take office.
Russia gets tangled up
Russia, for its part, commented on the role of the international community. “We call on the West to finally put an end to its false propaganda and to stop blaming the incidents in Kosovo on the Serbs driven to despair,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “We need decisive de-escalation measures,” he demanded.