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A police water cannon tries to extinguish a burning car in Zvečan, northern Kosovo
Photo: STRINGER / REUTERS
After clashes in a Serb-majority city in Kosovo, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has put his country's army on standby. In the village of Zvečan, Kosovo police had dispersed Serbian demonstrators who wanted to prevent the new mayor from taking office. The officers used tear gas and stun grenades, local media reported. The protesters torched a police car.
Serbian Defense Minister Miloš Vučević spoke on television of an urgent measure. "It is clear that terror is being perpetrated against the Serbian community in Kosovo." In addition, troops should be moved closer to the border with Kosovo.
About 50,000 Serbs live in four northern municipalities of Kosovo, including Zvečan. They boycotted the local elections on April 23 – the turnout was 3.5 percent – and refuse to cooperate with the new Albanian mayors. The spokesmen of the Kosovo Serbs, who are controlled by the government in Serbia, had called for a boycott of the election.
The leadership in the capital Pristina blamed Belgrade for Friday's unrest. "Serbia's illegal and criminal structures in northern Kosovo have been ordered to escalate the situation on the ground," Blerim Vela, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani's chief of staff, wrote on Twitter.
Again and again there are tensions with the Serb minority in northern Kosovo. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. However, the government in Belgrade did not recognize independence. The Serbs living in Kosovo also see themselves as part of the neighbouring country. The ongoing dispute between the former Yugoslav republic of Serbia and its former province of Kosovo is an obstacle on the path of both states to the European Union. Recently, however, Serbian President Vučić had struck a more moderate tone.
mgo/dpa/Reuters