The tension continues this Tuesday in the north of Kosovo after the clashes that injured 30 NATO soldiers and 50 Serb protesters on Monday who reject the authority of the mayors of four municipalities where they are the majority.
KFOR soldiers, the NATO mission in Kosovo, have deployed this morning in front of the City Hall building in Zvecan, where the violent protests took place this Monday, as well as in the town of Leposavic.
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Units of the Kosovo special police with armored vehiclesaccording to local media.
Groups of Serb protesters gather nearby again, among them the employees who work in the City Hall, to which they have not had access since last Friday, when the Kosovar police forcibly broke the Serb blockade to allow the mayors to pass.
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KFOR intervened this Monday with tear gas and stun bombs to contain the violent protests of the Serbs, which have left more than 50 demonstrators injured, one of them shot and in serious condition, and 30 Italian and Hungarian soldiers who suffered broken bones, bruises and burns.
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Serbs, a minority in Kosovo but a majority in four northern municipalities, they do not recognize the authority of the mayors, who belong to the Albanian majority of the country. They were elected last April in a vote that the Serbs boycotted and in which participation barely exceeded 3%.
‼️ 🔴 More than 20 Hungarian NATO troops were injured in clashes in the north of the Republic of Kosovo, seven of them seriously.
Police and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) troops clashed with protesters… pic.twitter.com/ss2Z8rsX13
— Fidias Roldan (@RoldanFidias) May 30, 2023
The Serbs demand the withdrawal of the new mayors and special policemen from the north. The United States and the European Union have condemned the Serb attacks on international troops.
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Belgrade accuses the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, of provoking the incidents, having used last Friday the special police forces against Serb protesters to force mayors into town halls.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic purged Kosovo Serbs to demonstrate peacefully and “do not enter into conflicts with NATO”.
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Kosovo, a former Serbian province populated by a large majority of Albanians, proclaimed its independence in 2008, which Serbia does not recognize.
Both countries negotiate the normalization of their relations on a new plan of the European Union, supported by the United States, in a process frequently interrupted by crises and tensions.
EFE
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