Kosovo-Serbia high tension: Pristina sends agents and armored vehicles to the north, Serb barricades

The situation in northern Kosovo is becoming increasingly heated, with an escalation of inter-ethnic tension that increasingly worries the international community, alarmed by a possible new fire in the heart of the Balkans, a chronically unstable and politically fragile region in which they have not yet healed the wounds of the bloody fratricidal conflicts of the 1990s. Western chancelleries, primarily the EU and the US, are multiplying their appeals for calm, and in the last few hours it was the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani who contacted the Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and the Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti by telephone, launching appeals to dialogue and moderation.

The agreement of the last few weeks on the issue of car registration plates seemed to have restored calm to the turbulent relations between the Pristina leadership, of Albanian ethnicity, and the Serb population which constitutes the majority in northern Kosovo, and which enjoys the unconditional support of the Belgrade government. However, the atmosphere was heated up again by the decision of the Kosovar government to send hundreds of heavily armed special police agents backed up by armored vehicles to the north.

A step motivated by the need to guarantee public order and the safety of residents after the incidents of recent days, but which has caused a real uprising in the local Serb population. An anger supported and shared by Belgrade, which openly accuses Prime Minister Kurti of fanning the flames, of implementing a provocative policy and of aiming for a real ethnic cleansing with the expulsion of the Serbs from Kosovo.

Kosovo, shootings and explosions
Two explosions were heard in the evening in Zvecan, one of the four largest Serb-majority municipalities in northern Kosovo. This was reported by the correspondent of the Belgrade newspaper Vecernje Novosti, who did not specify the origin of the explosions. The same newspaper reported a shooting near Zubin Potok, another municipality with a Serb majority in the north. An exchange of fire, it was specified, lasted for about 15 minutes. These events confirm the high inter-ethnic tension that persists in the north of Kosovo, where since the afternoon groups of Serbs – in protest against the arrest of a Serbian policeman – have set up road blocks and erected barricades. The situation is monitored by the Kosovar police, who have arrived in force in recent days, but also by units of Eulex, the European civilian mission, and by patrols of KFOR, the NATO force in Kosovo. In the evening, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, in a harsh speech on live television, reiterated the accusations against the Kosovar premier Albin Kurti of wanting to exacerbate the situation with his policy hostile to the Serbs and contempt for international law and the agreements already reached in the dialogue.

Serbian president: without Serb communities no other agreement
For the Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic no new agreements can be negotiated with Pristina until the Community of Serbian Municipalities in Kosovo is created. This body is among the central points of the Brussels agreement of 2013, on which Belgrade insists but which Pristina does not want to hear about, considering it contrary to the constitution, which prohibits the existence of mono-ethnic entities in Kosovo. Speaking in a live television intervention in the evening dedicated to the new tensions in Kosovo, Vucic said at the same time that the Community of Serbian municipalities cannot be the subject of a new agreement, being part of an agreement already concluded in recent years and which must respected.

The dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina has been held since 2011 with EU mediation, under a mandate from the United Nations. The European Union is the guarantor of the agreements reached during the negotiations. In his speech, Vucic said at the same time that strong international pressure on Serbia is to be expected from December 17, when representatives of the EU, the USA, France and Germany are expected together in Belgrade.

Serbian premier: “Situation on the verge of a new armed conflict”
The words of the Serbian premier yesterday were shocking Ana Brnabic, according to whom with his unilateral and destabilizing actions and with his evident anti-Serb hatred Kurti has brought the situation “to the limit of a new armed conflict” in the Balkans. And today, in protest against the arrest of a former Serb agent of the Kosovar police, who resigned in recent weeks together with the other Serb representatives of all the institutions of Kosovo, in various parts of the north the Serb population staged demonstrations by erecting barricades and implementing blockades road.

The president of Kosovo postpones the elections
In this situation of growing tension, the president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, announced the postponement to April 23 of the early local elections scheduled for December 18 for the replacement of mayors in the main northern municipalities with a Serb majority. In the evening, President Vucic, in a speech on live TV, returned to accuse the Kosovar premier Kurti of pursuing an “irresponsible and dangerous” policy, trampling on international law and all the agreements concluded during the dialogue. And he announced that Belgrade will ask the KFOR command to be able to send a contingent of its security forces to Kosovo. According to him, this is foreseen by resolution 1244 of the UN security council.

Tajani’s call for dialogue
An urgent appeal for moderation and dialogue, as we said, came from today Antonio Tajani, who expressed concern to Vucic and Kurti about the progressive deterioration of the situation. The head of the Farnesina, who had been on a mission to Belgrade and Pristina in recent weeks, reiterated Italy’s willingness to “play a leading role in the Western Balkans to guarantee security and socio-economic growth”. “The stability of the region is an Italian and a European objective,” Tajani said.