The voltage internet site in Kosovo remains high, after a night spent peacefully and without excesses since Wednesday morning a few thousand Serb demonstrators gathered again until late Wednesday afternoon and in a peaceful manner in front of the town hall in Of canone of the four largest municipalities in the north with a Serbian majority, reiterating the requests to the management of Pristina: withdrawal of police unit from northern Kosovo with a Serbian majority and renunciation of the new mayors of Albanian ethnicity to settle in the municipal offices of the Serbian municipalities of the north. Such mayors I am deemed illegitimate having been elected in one consultation which, for the boycott of Serbs, recorded a turnout of just 3%. And you don’t accept that mayors representing 2% of the Albanian inhabitants go to govern cities whose population is 98% made up of Serbs. A position also shared by the USA which, after threatening repercussions against Kosovo, has expelled the country from a NATO exercise.
I demonstrators a Of can – the media report a Belgrade – they unfolded a huge one this morning flag Serbian of 250 meters, and with speakers are spread patriotic music e Serbian traditional songs. There is a massive presence of Kosovar police and troops on the spot Kforto guard the seat of the Municipality, which was isolated from fences and a barbed wire fence. Strong presence of police and military Nato also around the Town Halls of Zubin Potok e Leposavictwo more Common with a Serbian majority. TO Leposavic groups of demonstrators manned the headquarters of the all night long Common, where the new Albanian mayor remained for security reasons. The protests these days are not about the municipality of the northern (Serbian) sector of Mitrovicawhose new mayor is not ethnic Albanian but Bosniak, and who has been accepted by the city’s Serb inhabitants.
The reactions of Moscow and Washington – The High Representative of the EU Joseph Borrellafter meeting a Bratislava with the Kosovar prime minister Albin Kurti “to discuss tensions in the north of the Kosovo“, he declared that in the country “the current situation is dangerous and unsustainable. We need one urgent de-escalation and a solution through the dialogue to return to work on the implementation of the agreement reached”. If the concern of Bruxelles it is palpable, from Russia the spokesman of the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskovreiterates that Mosca supports “unconditionally” the Serbia“follows developments in the situation very closely” in Kosovo and she is “worried”. “All the legitimate interests of the Serbs of the Kosovo must be respected and there must be no place for provocative actions that violate their rights,” he added Peskov. Yesterday Mosca had attacked theAtlantic Alliance for his presence in north of Kosovo and the management of tensions of the last days, where Serbian protesters protest against the inauguration of new ethnic mayors in their offices albanese elected in the local vote of 23 April and during which over thirty soldiers of the military were injured Kforforces Nato on the territory. Give him United Statesalso the US Secretary of State Antony Blink came back to comment with worry the situation of high tension, criticizing the decision of the Kosovar leadership to forcibly guarantee access to the municipal offices of the Serbian municipalities in the north of Kosovo. And approach this, in his opinion, which contributes unnecessarily to increase the tensions.
Quoted by Serbian media, The blink launched a new call on the parties to adopt measures urgent to loosen the tensions. “He first Albin Kurti and his government must ensure that new ones mayors temporarily fulfill theirs service activities from alternative locations outside the municipal buildings, and that the police forces present in the area,” he said The blink. The state secretary asked the Serbian president at the same time Aleksandar Vucic and to the government of Belgrade to reduce the state of alert of Armed forces and to ask the Serbs of the Kosovo to cease the provocations and attacks on troops Kforavoiding other actions of violence. Belgrade e Pristinahe added, they must return to dialogue under the aegis of the EU as soon as possible for the normalization of their relations.
The tougher the position of the American ambassador in Belgrade, Christopher Hillwho accused the Kosovar leadership of failing to heed Washington’s advice and that of this Pristina will suffer the consequenceswith inevitable impact on relationships between Kosovo and the United States. “Our secretary of state Antony Blinken has made it clear that he opposes all the actions taken by Prime Minister Albin Kurti, which are in contrast with all the advice we have given. And Blinken said that all of this will have consequences ”. Which are not long in coming: the United States indeed has expelled Kosovo from a NATO military exercise American-led, Defender 23underway from April to June in Europe with the participation of about twenty allied countries, as announced by the US ambassador in Pristina, Jeffrey Hovenier. “For Kosovo, this exercise is over.”