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In a joint statement, the US and Serbian embassies in Kosovo expressed their deep concern about the current situation in northern Kosovo, in light of the escalation of tension on Sunday after unknown clashes with provincial police and they threw a stun grenade at two policemen from the European Union mission.
The statement from the two embassies condemned the attacks on Kosovan and international security agencies, and called on everyone to exercise maximum restraint and to take immediate measures to calm the situation.
The statement also said that the Kosovo authorities had arrested a person suspected of involvement in a violent attack against law enforcement agencies, and the statement believed that this arrest was being used as a justification for illegal road closures as well as threats and intimidation against the authorities of Kosovo and local population.
Tensions rose in northern Kosovo on Sunday after unknown persons exchanged fire with police and threw a stun grenade at a patrol of the European Union Mission (Eulex) engaged in conducting security patrols in the north of the country.
Hundreds of angry Serbs in northern Kosovo have set up a series of checkpoints near two border crossings into Serbia, after explosions, shootings and attacks on police over the past few days following the rejection of local elections called from Kosovo to Serbia. major cities in the north of the country.
The statement from the US embassies in Kosovo and Serbia called on those who erected illegal roadblocks to remove them immediately and called for an end to all threats of violence and intimidation.
For his part, the European Union’s foreign policy commissioner, Josep Borrell, warned of possible attacks on the European mission and said that the union will not tolerate violence against members of its mission.
“The European Union will not tolerate attacks on the EULEX mission in Kosovo, the use of violence or criminal acts in the north. Kosovo Serb groups must remove barriers immediately. Calm must be restored,” Borrell wrote on Twitter.
In turn, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) demanded that those involved in the attack on the European patrol be held accountable.
for his part, German Foreign Minister Annalina Baerbock criticized the sending of Serbian troops to Kosovo as completely unacceptable.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic held a National Security Council meeting to discuss the developments and said his country would ask NATO’s peacekeeping force in Kosovo to deploy Serbian police and army to the region. He added that he was sure NATO would reject the request, but the government was determined to sign and hand over the request document.
The escalation of tension between the two neighboring countries was behind the attempt by the Pristina government to ask Kosovo Serbs to replace the Kosovo-issued license plates with old plates from neighboring Serbia.
In Kosovo – which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 – there are about 120,000 Serbs out of a population of about two million, most of them Albanians. Serbia refuses to recognize Kosovo’s independence and encourages the Serb majority in northern Kosovo to challenge the authorities in Pristina.
