Mitrovica’s pro-Belgrade minority barricaded roads as they believe the Pristina government tramples on their rights
A badly closed war never ceases to be latent. The conflict in the former Yugoslavia is the best example of this, especially since many of the agreements that allowed the fragile peace to be reached after the mediation of the European Union have been breached. Embers flare continuously between Serbia and its former autonomous province of Kosovo, which gained unilateral independence in 2008.
This status was accepted by the majority of the international community -not by Spain-, but this did not serve to neutralize the conflict. Since 2013, protests have been constant in the city of Mitrovica, divided by ethnic issues and by an alleged breach by the Pristina government of the agreement to create a community of Serb municipalities that would operate with some self-government.
The demonstrations and barricades this month have resulted in clashes with shots and explosions, and in the decision of the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, to place his troops deployed on the border on the highest level of combat alert on Monday. By then there had been weeks of tension over the so-called ‘license plate crisis’. This conflict refers to the measures related to the type of identification of the vehicles of the Kosovar Serbs, whose owners were ordered to change their old Belgrade plates for others issued by Pristina.
peacekeepers
However, the conflict really boiled over after the arrest of a former Serbian police officer for allegedly assaulting active officers during a previous protest. Meanwhile, the NATO peacekeepers (Kfor) are mute and inoperative witnesses to the future of a region with an Albanian majority that also lives around 50,000 Serb citizens -5% of the 1.8 million inhabitants of Kosovo- who consider Belgrade their capital and who refuse to recognize the new ‘status quo’.
The fire was fed with new firewood the day before yesterday, when the authorities of the young Balkan country prevented the entry of the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the decision of the Srpska Lista (Serbian List) party not to participate in the upcoming municipal elections was confirmed. “The situation there is complicated and complex,” all analysts in the region agree. Belgrade believes that Kosovo tramples on the rights of the Serb minority in its desire to consolidate its sovereignty throughout the territory. Pristina, for its part, believes that the residents only seek chaos and destabilization with the ultimate goal of causing armed clashes. This section includes the decision of the Kosovar Serbs to refuse to pay the Kosovo energy operator for the electricity they consume.
Meanwhile, the protests are ongoing despite attempts at dialogue and mediation by the EU and other international organizations. The last straw that fell on an already overflowing glass was the presentation of the application by Kosovo to join the European Union. Since 2008, Brussels has maintained the Eulex mission in Kosovo, made up of around 200 special police officers.
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