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NATO assured this December 11 that its peacekeeping forces in Kosovo “are fully capable” to carry out their work in the country with limited recognition, after Serbia’s request to the alliance to deploy its forces there after armed clashes between the Kosovo Serbs and the local police. The new tension between Belgrade and its former province broke out after the promulgation of a law that requires the change of Serbian license plates.
New peak of violence in Kosovo. The former province of Serbia and with limited recognition as a country is the center of a pitched battle, so Belgrade sought to deploy its troops and police in the area. However, NATO stopped that option.
The political-military alliance indicated that its peacekeepers deployed in Kosovo have the full capacity to act there, in response to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, who asked the organization to allow him to deploy 1,000 of his soldiers in the area.
“Our mission for Kosovo remains extremely vigilant and is fully capable of carrying out the mandate given to it by the UN in Kosovo,” NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said on her official Twitter account.
Tensions were high in northern Kosovo on Sunday after unknown attackers exchanged gunfire with the police and threw a stun grenade at EU law enforcers during the night.https://t.co/VjBlrLzJ19
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) December 11, 2022
Tension is high after dozens of Serbs in Kosovo’s volatile north blocked roads with heavy vehicles and trucks. They also staged exchanges of fire with local police to protest the arrest of a former Kosovo police officer who resigned last month along with other ethnic Serbs.
According to Pristina, the former official, identified as Dejan Pantic, was arrested for allegedly attacking offices of the Electoral Commission, police officers and electoral officials, on Tuesday, December 6.
But the root of the new tension comes from last November when the Kosovo government announced a plan to replace the registration plates issued by Belgrade with others issued by Pristina.
Then, around 600 policemen, as well as Serb mayors in northern Kosovo municipalities and local judges resigned their posts in rejection of that decision.
Blockades that began this weekend halted traffic and authorities say they have been forced to close two border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia.
Later, they indicated that their officers were attacked in several places near a lake on the border with Serbia. So far there are no reports of deaths or injuries from these events.
“The police units, in their own defense, were forced to respond with firearms to the criminals who were repelled and ran in unknown directions,” the police institution said in a statement.
Elections in Kosovo postponed
In the midst of the turbulent panorama, the president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, announced that the local elections in that area would be delayed until April 23, 2023.
The elections were scheduled for December 18. However, the Serbs who live in that part of the country with little international recognition assured that they would boycott the polls.
Pristina accuses Belgrade of the wave of violence.
“Serbia has instructed its illegal structures to set up barricades in northern Kosovo. Belgrade bears full responsibility for any escalation,” said Blerim Vela, Kosovo’s presidential chief of staff.
Meanwhile, the European Union demanded this Sunday, December 10, the immediate removal of the barricades.
“The Kosovar Serb groups must immediately remove the barricades. Calm must be restored,” stressed the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 with Western backing, following a 1998-1999 war in which NATO intervened to protect majority Albanian Kosovo.
With Reuters and EFE
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