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A KFOR member patrols in front of the mayor's building in Leposavić
Photo: OGNEN TEOFILOVSKI / REUTERS
In the north of Kosovo, militant Serbs and soldiers of the international protection force KFOR are facing each other. Now, after the recent riots in the north of his country, Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti has brought new elections into the conversation. "The withdrawal of violent mobs in front of the municipal offices (...) is the way to de-escalate until there are new elections," Kurti wrote on Twitter late Thursday evening.
After the election of new mayors, protests were ignited in three out of four Serb-majority municipalities. Militant Serbs attacked NATO peacekeepers with incendiary devices and stones in the village of Zvecan on Monday. 30 Italian and Hungarian soldiers, as well as more than 50 Serbs, suffered injuries. In by-elections, which the Serbs boycotted at the behest of the government in Belgrade, politicians of Albanian origin had prevailed.
Kosovo, which is now inhabited almost exclusively by Albanians, declared independence in 2008. To this day, Serbia does not recognize this step and demands the return of its former province. In an area in the north, which borders directly on Serbia, almost exclusively Serbs live.
Intervention by Macron and Scholz
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday evening after mediation talks together with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that they had called for new elections to be organised in the four municipalities in northern Kosovo as soon as possible. The Serbs there would then also have to participate in these. At the same time, Kosovo must immediately and as a matter of priority settle the question of establishing an association of municipalities with a Serbian majority. Scholz and Macron had led the talks to ease the escalated conflict on the sidelines of the summit of the European Political Community in Moldova.
mrc/dpa