ZVECAN, KOSOVO (AP) – International efforts to defuse a crisis in Kosovo intensified on Wednesday as ethnic Serbs held more protests in a northern town where recent clashes with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-led peacekeepers sparked fears of renewed conflict in the troubled region.
Hundreds of Serbs repeated at a rally their demand for the withdrawal from northern Kosovo of the special police and ethnic Albanian officials who were elected to mayor’s offices in votes overwhelmingly boycotted by Serbs. The crowd then spread a huge Serbian flag outside the city hall in the town of Zvecan.
The rising tensions have fuelled concern about another war like the 1998-99 fighting in Kosovo that claimed more than 10,000 lives, left more than one million people homeless and resulted in a NATO peacekeeping mission that has lasted nearly a quarter of a century.
Working to avert any escalation, European Union (EU) officials met with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on the sidelines of a conference in Bratislava, Slovakia.
The leaders of France and Germany announced plans to meet top Serbia and Kosovo officials yesterday at a summit in Moldova. “The current situation is dangerous and unsustainable,” EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell said. “We need urgent de-escalation.”
Speaking in Slovakia, Kurti flatly rejected Serb demands but left the door open for fresh local elections.
“As long as there is a violent mob outside the municipal buildings, we must have our special units,” he said. “If there would have been peaceful protests asking for early election, that would attract my attention, and perhaps I would consider that request.”
Kurti also suggested that Russia may have a hand in the latest flare-up, pointing to protesters who “do graffiti with letter Z” and show admiration for “despotic” Russian President Vladimir Putin and for the invasion of Ukraine.
Russia is a close Serbian ally, although Belgrade populist leaders claim to be seeking EU membership.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Moscow is monitoring the situation and supporting “all legitimate rights and interests of Kosovo Serbs”.
Wednesday’s protest in Zvecan, 45 kilometres north of the capital, Pristina, ended peacefully. On Monday, ethnic Serbs tried to storm municipal offices and fought with both Kosovo police and the peacekeepers, leaving 30 NATO soldiers and 50 rioters injured.
