Twenty-five soldiers from a NATO-led peacekeeping force were injured in clashes with Serbian protesters while defending three town halls in northern Kosovo. Serbia’s president has put the army on highest level of alert.
The peacekeeping force, called KFOR, condemned the violence that broke out on Monday after ethnic Albanian mayors took office in the Serb-majority region of northern Kosovo, following elections that were boycotted by the Serbs. “While countering the most active fringes of the crowd, several soldiers of the Italian-Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices,” it said in a statement.
According to the defence ministry, two Serbs were injured during the clash. Kosovo’s President, Vjosa Osmani, accused her Serbian counterpart, Aleksandar Vucic, of destabilising the country.
“Serb illegal structures turned into criminal gangs have attacked Kosovo police, KFOR officers & journalists. Those who carry out Vucic’s orders to destabilise the north of Kosovo, must face justice,” the president tweeted. Meanwhile, Aleksandar Vucic said that 52 Serbs had been injured, with three in critical condition.
Witnesses say the clashes broke out early on Monday in the northern town of Zvecan. State Police reportedly used pepper gas to fend off the Serbs who tried to storm the municipal building. The force is now entirely staffed by ethnic Albanians, after all the Serbs resigned last year.
Defence Minister Milos Vucevic told reporters that Vucic- who is also the commander-in-chief of the Serbian Armed Forces- issued “additional instructions for the deployment of the army’s units in specific, designated positions.” Earlier, KFOR said that it had increased its presence in four northern municipalities following “the latest developments in the area.”
More than 20 years after the Kosovo-Albanian struggle against oppressive Serbian domination, Serbs, who make up the majority in Kosovo’s north, still see Belgrade as their capital and refuse to recognise Kosovo’s proclamation of independence from Serbia.