In the town of Mitrovica: renewed unrest between the Kosovo police and the Serbian minority

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There was renewed unrest in Kosovo on Tuesday: after the arrest of a suspected Serbian militia leader in Kosovo, there were renewed clashes on Tuesday between Kosovo police and members of the Serbian minority in the town of Mitrovica.

Kosovo Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla, 53, said three police officers were “slightly injured” after a man was arrested for allegedly organizing attacks on KFOR soldiers in May.

AFP journalists on the scene watched as police were driven back by a mob of stone-throwing ethnic Serbs. Air raid sirens blared in the city as about 100 Serbs got into a scuffle with police.

The situation has been escalating for weeks

Tensions in the restive north of Kosovo have been running high for weeks after Pristina decided to install ethnic Albanian mayors in four Serb-majority municipalities. Serbian residents in the north of the country had previously boycotted local elections there.

Following the deployment, riots broke out in the northern Kosovo town of Zvacan in late May, injuring 30 soldiers from the international security force KFOR.

The crisis city of Mitrovica in the north of the country, divided into Serb neighborhoods north of the Ibar River and an Albanian part in the south, has been on alert ever since.

Prior to the recent clashes, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti (48) had presented a five-point de-escalation plan calling for new elections in the four contested communities and the “immediate” resumption of talks with Serbia under the auspices of the EU. .

Kosovo, a country of 1.8 million people, the majority of whom are ethnic Albanians, declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade still considers it a Serbian province to this day. About 120,000 Serbs live in Kosovo, most of them in the north. (AFP)

Source: Blick