25 KFOR soldiers injured in Serbian riots in Kosovo
A car burns in Zvecan after clashes between NATO troops and Serbian demonstrators
What: REUTERS
15 years after independence, Kosovo is still unsettled – Serbs protested against the Albanian post after a mayoral election was out of hand. Now members of the NATO-led peacekeeping mission are also caught between the edges.
Rand 25 soldiers from the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (KFOR) were injured in clashes with Serbian demonstrators. “Several soldiers from the Italian and Hungarian KFOR team were attacked for no reason and injured with fractures and burns from the explosion of incendiary bombs,” KFOR reported Monday evening.
KFOR condemned the attacks on its troops and stressed that such attacks are “totally unacceptable”. Serbian demonstrators demanding the removal of the recently elected Albanian mayor tried to enter the city administration building in the town of Zvecan in northern Kosovo.
Violent clashes broke out in the town of Zvecan in northern Kosovo
What: REUTERS
The police then used tear gas shells. KFOR soldiers intervened and positioned themselves between the police and the demonstrators. Serbian state television reported that two Serbs were wounded.
In April, Kosovar authorities held local elections in four Serb-majority cities. However, Serbs largely boycotted the elections, so the Albanian minority took control of municipal councils despite an overall voter turnout of less than 3.5 percent.
Serbia puts armed forces on high combat readiness
EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell condemned the clashes. Violence against NATO peacekeepers is “absolutely unacceptable”. “The EU calls on Kosovo’s authorities and demonstrators to immediately and unconditionally escalate the situation,” Borrell wrote on Twitter. He demanded immediate talks.
Meanwhile, Serbia put its armed forces on high combat readiness. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had already ordered combat readiness on Friday, albeit at a reduced level. Vucic will meet on Tuesday with ambassadors from the United States, Italy, France, Germany and Britain – the so-called Quint group – the president’s office said. After that he will hold separate meetings with ambassadors of Finland, Russia and China.
Kosovo, which has a majority Albanian population of 1.8 million, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade still considers it a Serbian province. About 120,000 Serbs live in Kosovo. The region was rocked by a devastating war in 1998 and 1999.
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