Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti accused Belgrade on Friday (June 2nd) of having "organized" the escalation of the situation in northern Kosovo, where 80 people were injured earlier this week in a clash between Serb demonstrators and NATO force soldiers.
Faced with pressure from Western powers to act to de-escalate the situation, the head of the Kosovar government was invited by Parliament to explain the situation in the north.
'The escalation has been planned'
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The escalation of the situation on May 29 was planned, well organized and had an author. The perpetrator is Belgrade," Kurti told MPs. "Serbia has mobilized criminal groups to aggravate the situation." This Monday, May 29, thirty soldiers of the NATO force in Kosovo (Kfor) as well as about fifty Serb demonstrators were injured in the clashes in front of the town hall of Zvecan. Serbs have been gathering there for a week to protest against the inauguration of the Albanian mayor, elected in April in municipal elections boycotted by their community. The situation was similar in three other municipalities, where Serbs are in the majority, i.e. these Albanian mayors were elected with a turnout of less than 3.5% and are therefore considered "illegitimate" by the Serb community.
Serbia has never recognised the independence proclaimed in 2008 by its former province, and encourages the 120,000 Serbs who live there (between 6% and 7% of the population) to defy the authorities in Pristina. In the wake of these riots, NATO decided to quickly send 700 additional soldiers to Kosovo, in a mission of some 3800 people. Initially, major Western powers, including Paris and Washington, blamed the Kosovar government for these latest incidents. On Thursday, however, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on both Kosovo and Serbia to "take immediate steps towards de-escalating tensions".
See alsoKosovo: renewed violence between Serbs and Albanians
At the same time, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz met in Moldova, on the sidelines of an EU summit, with Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani and his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic to demand "the organisation as soon as possible of new elections in these four municipalities". Emmanuel Macron said that "clear decisions" have been asked of the two leaders "for next week". However, several hundred Serbs, including employees in the local administration, gathered again Friday in front of the town hall of Zvecan which has been guarded since Tuesday by a large Kfor device, reported an AFP journalist. "We don't want this fake mayor to come to our town hall (...) because we didn't elect him," employee Natasa Aksentijevic told the crowd.
