Recent clashes between ethnic Serbs, Kosovo police and NATO peacekeepers in northern Kosovo has drawn strong condemnation from the U.S. and NATO.
“The United States strongly condemns yesterday's attacks against @NATO led Kosovo Force (KFOR) peacekeepers and urges both sides to take immediate actions to de-escalate tensions and to recommit to EU-led normalization talks,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a tweet on May 30.
The Associated Press (AP) reported May 29 that 25 members of a NATO-led peacekeeping force had been injured in the fighting that broke out in Zvecan, a town approximately 28 miles north of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. The AP reports that witnesses said the soldiers "fired tear gas and stun grenades to protect the Kosovar officers and disperse protesters." The Serbians threw "rocks and other hard objects" in return, according to the AP.
The fighting broke out after ethnic Serbs tried to take over municipal offices to prevent ethnic Albanians from taking up posts they had been elected to earlier last month in elections largely boycotted by the Serbs, the AP reports. Only ethnic Albanians or members of other smaller minorities were elected, according to the AP. Kosovar police and KFOR peacekeepers were seen protecting municipal buildings in four municipalities in northern Kosovo.
Tensions in northern Kosovo have flared since 1998, after separatist ethnic Albanians rebelled against Serbian rule, which Serbia brutally put down. Serbia was forced out of the region after a NATO military intervention in 1999; the U.S. and most EU countries recognize Kosovo as an independent state, the AP reports; China, Russia and Serbia do not.
Blinken said in a press statement issued May 30 that the U.S. "call(s) on all parties to take immediate actions to de-escalate tensions. The United States condemns the unacceptable violence yesterday against NATO-led KFOR troops, law enforcement, and journalists."
Blinken criticised the government of Kosovo for its decision to force access to municipal buildings, stating the move "sharply and unnecessarily escalated tensions." He called on Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti and his government to enable elected mayors to carry out their duties from alternate locations outside the buildings and to withdraw police forces from the area.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also condemned the fighting, saying "such attacks are unacceptable and must stop."
Stoltenberg announced an additional 700 troops from the operational reserve force for the Western Balkans will be deployed, while an extra battalion of reserve forces will be placed on higher readiness to ensure their availability if required, according to the NATO news release.
