According to Reuters, a day after 30 NATO soldiers and 52 protesters were injured in clashes, Serbian protesters smashed two journalists’ cars in Leposavic, Kosovo. E.U. NATO officials and other concerned parties have called for a reduction in violence.
After ethnic Albanian mayors took office in the Serb-majority area of northern Kosovo following April elections that the Serbs boycotted, the U.S. On Friday, Pristina was rebuked by its allies and partners.
“has directed the deployment of the Operational Reserve Forces (ORF) for the Western Balkans,” NATO stated in a statement, “will send additional forces to Kosovo to curb the violence.”
A Reuters reporter who witnessed the incident reported that masked men smashed the windshield of a car with an Albanian license plate that read “A2, CNN affiliate.” Another media outlet’s separate vehicle was also damaged. There were no injuries.
Josep Borrell, the head of E.U. foreign policy, urged the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to engage in dialogue to reduce tensions.
“We have a lot of brutalities currently in Europe today; we can’t manage the cost of another contention,” Borrell told a news preparation in Brussels.
Most Serbs in northern Kosovo never accepted Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008, and more than two decades after the Kosovo Albanian uprising against repressive Serbian rule, they consider Belgrade their capital.
While ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of Kosovo’s population, northern Serbs have long demanded the implementation of a 2013 agreement between the E.U. and their region to form an association of autonomous municipalities.
“DECISIVE STEPS” In April, ethnic Albanian candidates won the mayoral elections in four municipalities with a majority of Serbs, with a turnout of 3.5 percent.
Russia, which has shared Serbia’s Slavic and Orthodox Christian traditions for a long time, demanded “decisive steps” on Tuesday to put an end to the unrest in Kosovo.
The Russian foreign ministry has issued a statement urging the West to end its inaccurate propaganda and refrain from attributing Kosovo incidents to Serbs allegedly driven to despair. The ministry emphasized that the Serbs are peaceful and unarmed and were merely attempting to protect their legitimate rights and freedoms.
At Belgrade’s request, Moscow assisted in stymieing Kosovo’s bid for U.N. membership.
A few ethnic Serbs assembled before the metropolitan structure in the town of Zvecan on Tuesday, where the circumstance was quiet, with warriors from the U.S., Italy, and Poland holding on in enemy of mob gear.
The Serbian Tanjug news agency reported, citing Serbian officials in Zvecan, that the protesters from Serbia will disperse at 4 p.m. The scheduled departure time is 1400 GMT, and the return is planned for Wednesday morning.
Kosovo’s authorities have attributed the instability to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic. Vucic accuses the authorities in Kosovo of causing issues by appointing new mayors.
“In a majority rule government, there is a bad situation for fundamentalist viciousness — no allure from voting form to projectile,” Kosovo’s Top state leader Albin Kurti said on Twitter late Monday.
Vucic stated that he had requested that Albanian mayors be removed from their offices in the north after meeting ambassadors of the Quint group in Belgrade, which includes ambassadors from The countries included are the United States, Italy, France, Germany, and Britain.
Vjosa Osmani, the president of Kosovo, stated that criminal gangs aimed to destabilize Kosovo and the entire region with support from Vucic.
In Zvecan on Monday, Serb protesters hurled stun grenades and tear gas at NATO soldiers, injuring 30 NATO soldiers and 52 Serbs.
The E.U.’s Borrell stated, “Violent acts against citizens, the media, law enforcement, and KFOR (NATO’s Kosovo troops) are unacceptable.”