Militant Serbs Attack Polling Workers in North Kosovo Activists Convicted After Sticking Tape in London

On Tuesday, militant Serbs in northern Kosovo attacked pollsters and police officers preparing local elections in the Serb-populated part of the country. Police in the capital Pristina said no one was injured in the incidents in North Mitrovica and Zubin Potok. The attackers fired into the air and detonated explosives. An office of the Election Commission was vandalized.

Local elections on 18 and 25 December became necessary as Serbian mayors and municipal representatives in four municipalities in northern Kosovo, including northern Mitrovica and Zubin Potok, had resigned. They had been protesting a Kosovar government regulation that invalidated the number plates of ethnic Serbs issued in neighboring Serbia.

Under pressure from the EU and the US, the government in Pristina has now suspended the planned punishment of drivers with Serbian license plates. Kosovo used to be part of Serbia. After a NATO intervention in 1999, it split off and declared independence in 2008.

To this day, Serbia is unwilling to recognize the state of Kosovo. The small Balkan country is now inhabited almost exclusively by Albanians. About a third of the approximately 120,000 ethnic Serbs live in an area that includes North Mitrovica and three other municipalities, which directly borders Serbia.

In the enclave of North Mitrovica, Belgrade manages its own power structures based on militant activists and criminals. These repeatedly place roadblocks and initiate violent incidents. (saw/sda/dpa)