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Tensions in the Balkans: Wounded in clashes between Kosovo police and Serbs
Security forces and customs officials raided several smuggling centers in the area populated by Serbs, and violent clashes broke out between the parties.
"The international community must stop this madness," Belgrade warned, just days after a crisis over license plates between the two neighbors was resolved
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Wednesday, October 13, 2021, 10:29 p.m.
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Serbian residents clash with Kosovo police in Mitrovica, today (Photo: AP)
Kosovo police clashed today (Wednesday) with Serbian residents during an operation to smuggle goods, and at least seven people were injured. Serbia has reacted angrily to violence and urged the international community, including the NATO peacekeeping force, to restore order and prevent "wider chaos". With Western intervention and the deployment of NATO forces in the region.
Kosovo police said the raids took place in four different areas, including northern Mitrovica, which is mostly populated by ethnic Serbs. She claimed that "criminal groups organized to block roads using vehicles, used gas tanks, stun grenades and used weapons and hand grenades to hit and attack customs officials and police officers who performed their duties."
Police said six policemen were injured and another Serbian citizen was injured in the clash, and another eight Serbs were arrested. Police claimed that the raid was over and that the situation had calmed down. Dozens of other wounded were reported in the Serbian media, but this could not be verified. Documents from the clashes showed police firing tear gas at Serbs throwing stones and other objects at them. Police escorted customs officials from the arena to protect them, while the Serbs also blocked the main road with trucks, as they did last month during the previous crisis around license plates.
According to media in Kosovo, at least one mobile and two other cars with local license plates were set on fire. Serbian media reported extreme tensions "in the northern part of Mitrovica, and Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Corti called on Kosovo Serbs" not to fall into the hands of some Serbian media defending crime, corruption and smuggling and trying to politicize this issue and turn it into an ethnic issue. "
"We will not tolerate crime and criminal groups and we will fight them. We will fight and prevent smuggling," Corti wrote on his Facebook page.
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Bessarabia warns that the situation is "more dramatic".
Kosovo police forces in Zabkan, today (Photo: AP)
The Prime Minister of Serbia, Anna Barnavic, demanded a "quick response" from the international community because she said the situation in Mitrovica was "more dramatic". "This is a last minute that requires a clear response to the halt to the insane policies pursued by Pristina," she said in a statement. "This conduct brings us to the brink of chaos."
Peter Petkovic, the communications director of the Serbian presidency, said the Kosovo prime minister wanted to provoke "wider chaos". According to him, President Alexander Vučić is making his way to the city of Raska near the border with Kosovo, to meet with Serbian representatives in Kosovo.
"I ask for the power of peacekeeping and the international community to respond and stop this madness of Albin Corti," Petkovic said. If it can not respond and protect the Serbian people, there are those who can. "
EU Foreign Minister Joseph Burrell said Brussels was "in touch with Belgrade and Pristina", adding that "all open issues should be addressed through EU-mediated dialogue".
"Violent incidents in northern Kosovo must be stopped immediately. Unilateral and uncoordinated actions that endanger stability are unacceptable."
Kosovo was a Serbian province before declaring independence in 2008, but Belgrade has not yet recognized it.
Serbian forces fought Albanian separatists in 1998 and 1999, until a NATO air campaign repelled the Serbs.
Ties between Kosovo and Serbia have remained strained since then, although EU-sponsored dialogue in the decade has eased them.
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