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29 March 2024

Kosovo Serbs and Nato troops clash in tense north

Published
By Reuters

At least three Kosovo Serbs and a Nato soldier were wounded in a gunfight on Friday, as peacekeepers tried to dismantle Serb roadblocks blocking traffic, a Reuters witness said.

Nato troops in the Kosovo Force (KFOR) fired tear gas and small arms and some protesters fired back with handguns.

The troops, in armoured personnel carriers, were confronted by hundreds of Serbs who pelted them with stones near barricades in the villages of Rudare and Dudin Krs outside the town of Zvecan in a Serb-dominated northern area of Kosovo.

The roadblocks are among the last on major roads yet to be dismantled by KFOR. They were erected as part of a long-running Serb campaign to prevent the government of Albanian-majority independent Kosovo from imposing its rule in the area.

"One KFOR soldier has been wounded, has been evacuated and he is stable," said Nato spokesperson in Kosovo Uwe Nowitzki.

"KFOR will not allow the situation to escalate and will use a proportional level of force necessary to maintain a safe and secure environment," he said, adding that the operation to remove the roadblocks was continuing.

Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in 2008, is 90 percent ethnic Albanian. But Serbs opposed to independence dominate in a small swathe of the north bordering Serbia which continues to function as part of the Serbian state, resisting efforts by the Kosovo government to extend its authority.

A Reuters witness said KFOR troops from Germany and the United States received reinforcements after initial clashes and were deployed on hills overlooking Rudare. Several Nato helicopters were also flying over the area.

Dragisa Milovic, the mayor of Zvecan which is about 60 km (40 miles) from the capital Pristina, said KFOR had refused to allow Serb medical personnel to help wounded Serbs.
"A (KFOR) commander told me they have the authority to use deadly force on anyone who throws a stone or uses a weapon," he told Reuters.
Milovic said he had asked Serbs to withdraw to restore calm.

Health authorities in the Serb-controlled north of the city of Mitrovica said three Serbs were hospitalised while others were released after treatment for slight injuries.
Kosovo Serbs set up barricades at boundary crossings wih neighbouring Serbia last year, after authorities in Pristina and the European Union's police and judiciary mission EULEX attempted to establish their presence there.

A Kosovo policeman was killed in an ambush and several civilians and Nato troops were injured in clashes that erupted over months.
 
"RISKY MOVE"

Earlier this year, Belgrade sought to mend ties with Kosovo and agreed to open border crossings and establish cooperation with Pristina on issues like driving licences, land registration and school diplomas to secure European Union candidacy.

The outgoing pro-Western authorities in Belgrade have accused nationalists from the four Serb municipalities in Kosovo's north of stirring up trouble ahead of Serbia's May parliamentary and presidential elections, which ended in a victory for rightist challenger Tomislav Nikolic.

Oliver Ivanovic, Serbia's state secretary for Kosovo in the outgoing government, said KFOR had made "a risky move" by trying to remove the roadblocks and warned the situation in northern Kosovo was "volatile and may escalate by the end of the day".

"I cannot understand what motivated KFOR to make such a move ... except that it had an intention to reinforce Pristina's position ahead of the resumption of talks (with Serbia) this year," he said.
"We are the outgoing government and we can make only limited moves."
Nikolic, a former ultranationalist, took an oath of office on Thursday. He pledged he would maintain Serbia's EU bid, but would never renounce Kosovo as an integral part of Serbia.

Independent Kosovo has been recognised by 90 countries, including the United States and 22 of the EU's 27 member states.