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Around 25 NATO peacekeeping troopers defending three city halls in northern Kosovo have been injured in clashes with Serb protesters on Monday, whereas Serbia’s president put the military on the best degree of fight alert.
KFOR, the NATO-led peacekeeping mission to Kosovo, condemned the violence.
“While countering the most active fringes of the crowd, several soldiers of the Italian and 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 stated in an announcement.
Hungary’s protection minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky stated that 7 Hungarian troopers have been significantly injured and that they are going to be taken to Hungary for remedy. He stated 20 troopers have been injured. Italian troopers have been additionally injured in clashes.
“What is happening is absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible,” Italy’s Giorgia Meloni stated in an announcement. “It is vital to avoid further unilateral actions on the part of the Kosovar authorities and that all the parties in question immediately take a step back to ease the tensions.”
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stated that 52 Serbs have been injured, three of them significantly.
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani accused Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic of destabilising Kosovo.
“Serb illegal structures turned into criminal gangs have attacked Kosovo police, KFOR (peacekeeping) officers & journalists. Those who carry out Vucic’s orders to destabilise the north of Kosovo, must face justice,” Osmani tweeted.
Vucic accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of making tensions. He known as on Serbs in Kosovo to keep away from clashes with NATO troopers.
The tense state of affairs developed after ethnic Albanian mayors took workplace in northern Kosovo’s Serb majority space after elections the Serbs boycotted — a transfer that led the US and its allies to rebuke Pristina on Friday.
In Zvecan, one of many cities, Kosovo police — staffed by ethnic Albanians after Serbs stop the pressure final yr — sprayed pepper gasoline to repel a crowd of Serbs who broke by a safety barricade and tried to pressure their manner into the municipality constructing, witnesses stated.
Serb protesters in Zvecan threw tear gasoline and stun grenades at NATO troopers. Serbs additionally clashed with police in Zvecan and spray-painted NATO automobiles with the letter “Z”, referring to a Russian signal utilized in struggle in Ukraine.
In Leposavic, near the border with Serbia, US peacekeeping troops in riot gear positioned barbed wire across the city corridor to guard it from a whole bunch of indignant Serbs. Later within the day protesters threw eggs at a parked automotive belonging to the brand new Leposavic mayor.
Vucic, who’s the commander-in-chief of the Serbian armed forces, raised the military’s fight readiness to the best degree, Defence Minister Milos Vucevic informed reporters.
“This implies that immediately before 2.00 pm (1200 GMT, 5.30 pm IST), the Serbian Armed Forces’ Chief of the General Staff issued additional instructions for the deployment of the army’s units in specific, designated positions,” Vucevic stated, with out elaborating.
NATO peacekeepers additionally blocked off the city corridor in Zubin Potok to guard it from indignant native Serbs, witnesses stated.
Igor Simic, deputy head of the Serb List, the most important Belgrade-backed Kosovo Serb occasion, accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of fuelling tensions within the north.
“We are interested in peace. Albanians who live here are interested in peace, and only he (Kurti) wants to make chaos,” Simic informed reporters in Zvecan.
Tear gasoline
Serbs, who comprise a majority in Kosovo’s north, have by no means accepted its 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia and nonetheless see Belgrade as their capital greater than twenty years after the Kosovo Albanian rebellion towards repressive Serbian rule.
Ethnic Albanians make up greater than 90% of the inhabitants in Kosovo as a complete, however northern Serbs have lengthy demanded the implementation of an EU-brokered 2013 deal for the creation of an affiliation of autonomous municipalities of their space.
Serbs refused to participate in native elections in April and ethnic Albanian candidates received the mayoralties in 4 Serb-majority municipalities — together with North Mitrovica, the place no incidents have been reported on Monday — with a 3.5% turnout.
Serbs demand that the Kosovo authorities take away ethnic Albanian mayors from city halls and permit native administrations financed by Belgrade resume their work.
On Friday, three out of the 4 ethnic Albanian mayors have been escorted into their places of work by police, who have been pelted with rocks and responded with tear gasoline and water cannon to disperse the protesters.
The United States and its allies, which have strongly backed Kosovo’s independence, rebuked Pristina on Friday, saying imposing mayors in Serb-majority areas with out fashionable help undercut efforts to normalise relations.
Kurti defended Pristina’s place, tweeting after a weekend telephone name with the European Union’s international coverage chief: “Emphasised that elected mayors will provide services to all citizens.”
Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic informed RTS it was “not possible to have mayors who have not been elected by Serbs in Serb-majority municipalities”.
After assembly Kurti, US ambassador to Kosovo Jeffrey Hovenier informed reporters: “We are concerned about reports today about violence against official property.”
“We’ve seen pictures of graffiti against KFOR cars and police cars, we’ve heard about attacks on journalists, we condemn that, that is not appropriate response.”
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