by ReutersThe United States and allies slammed Kosovo on Friday for escalating tensions with Serbia, saying the use of force to install mayors in ethnic Serb areas undermined efforts to improve troubled ties with neighboring Serbia. Gave.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic put the army on full combat alert and ordered units closer to the border after clashes broke out on Friday between Kosovan police and protesters protesting against ethnic Albanian mayors.
Police disperse a crowd trying to prevent a newly-elected mayor from entering his office after a vote was boycotted in April by the Kosovo Serb majority in four northern municipalities near the border with Serbia fired tear gas in the city of Zwekan.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken criticized the Kosovo government for accessing municipal buildings by force and called on Prime Minister Albin Kurti to reverse course.
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In a statement, Blinken said the Kosovo action went against US and European advice and “sharply and unnecessarily escalated tensions, undermined our efforts to help normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia, and undermined Kosovo’s integrity”. Together our bilateral relations will have consequences.”
Britain, France, Italy, Germany and the United States issued a joint statement calling on the Kosovan authorities to step back and de-escalate the situation.
The US has been the main supporter of Kosovo politically, militarily and economically since it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in Kosovo, with Serbs forming a majority only in the northern region.
Serbs in the northern region of Kosovo do not accept the 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, nearly a decade after the end of the war there, and still see Belgrade as their capital.
A Western-backed plan was verbally agreed to by Kosovo and the Serbian government in March, which aimed to reduce tensions by granting greater autonomy to local Serbs, with the government in Pristina retaining final authority.
more autonomy
About 50,000 Serbs living in four northern Kosovo municipalities, including Zvečan, rejected the 23 April vote in protest that their demands for greater autonomy had not been met.
Turnout in the April election was only 3.47% and local Serbs said they would not work with the new mayors in the four municipalities – all from ethnic Albanian parties – because they do not represent them.
Kosovo police said in a statement that five of its officers were slightly injured when protesters threw stones and other objects at them. Four police vehicles were attacked, including one that was set on fire, the statement said. He said that gunshots were also heard in the area.
Local Serb health officials said about 10 people sought medical attention at a local hospital for minor injuries and the effects of tear gas.
Earlier, police in the Kosovo capital of Pristina issued a statement saying they were assisting newly-elected mayors to enter municipal offices.
In Zweken the mayor was successfully taken to the municipal building, a Reuters reporter heard over the police radio.
In a speech to thousands of supporters at a rally of his Serbian Progressive Party in Belgrade, Serbia’s Vucic announced a session of the country’s National Security Council to discuss the situation.
“We have never had a more difficult and bigger crisis”, he said, adding that while he would strive for peace, Serbia would “not sit idly by” if ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo were attacked.
Vucic accused the West of weakness and of acting slowly.
Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani said that “the police action against Vucic’s illegal structures and criminal gangs is legitimate, in fulfillment of its constitutional duties to protect all citizens without discrimination.”
A Reuters reporter said several vehicles from the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo were seen in the vicinity of the incident, while helicopters flew over the area.
The situation remained calm late in the night. Heavily armed police officers are still guarding the municipality buildings and their armored vehicles are blocking roads in and out of the mayors’ offices.
EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano called on all sides to “de-escalate the tense situation and restore calm immediately”.
“The European Union will not accept any unilateral or provocative actions and priority must be given to the preservation of peace and security on the ground,” he said in a statement.