Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo have flared up again this week, with protests over the inauguration of mayors elected in the last municipal elections, which were boycotted by the Serb population. Violent riots between protesters and NATO forces left 82 injured Monday, including 30 soldiers.
Peacekeepers stand guard outside a town hall in northern Kosovo on Wednesday, where hundreds of Serb protesters have gathered again.
The clashes, condemned by the international community, have fueled fears of reactivating the 1998-1999 conflict, which claimed more than 10,000 lives. The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and the EU High Representative for Foreign Policy and Security, Josep Borrell, are meeting on Wednesday morning to try to de-escalate the situation.
Kosovo, a country populated mainly by the Albanian population, gained independence from Serbia in 2008, following the 1998-1999 war in which Kosovo Albanians tried to break away from what was then the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, formed by present-day Serbia and Montenegro. Belgrade’s brutal response, with a policy of ethnic cleansing, prompted NATO intervention to protect the Kosovo Albanian majority.
Belgrade has refused to recognize Kosovo and still considers it part of Serbia, although it has no formal control there. Kosovo’s independence has been recognized by some 100 countries, including the United States, although powers including Russia, China and five EU countries – most with breakaway regions of their own – have sided with Serbia.
The Kosovo Serb minority, which makes up around 10% of the population, lives in the northern regions and has increasingly demanded greater autonomy from the Albanian population.
The 2013 Brussels Agreement brokered by the EU in an attempt to normalize relations between the two countries authorized Serbia to administer the majority-Serb municipalities in the northern region, an organization that Pristina fears will become a tool of Belgrade to control Kosovo. However, a decade later, this association of municipalities has not been created and disputes over the autonomy of the Kosovo Serbs continue.
In November 2022, the Serb community resigned en bloc from all Kosovo institutions and administrations as a form of protest to reclaim the Association of Serb Municipalities. This triggered the advance of the municipal elections that were finally held on April 23, four months late. The elections were boycotted by the Kosovar Serb population, who neither appeared on the electoral lists nor attended the polls to vote. The candidates who declared themselves victorious in the four Serb-majority municipalities are ethnic Albanians and did so with only 3.5% of the census, a fact that has raised many questions about their legitimacy to govern.
The violence broke out on Monday the 29th, the day on which the Kosovar police facilitated the entry of the elected councilors into the official buildings so that they could take office. Protesters who had gathered around the official buildings clashed with security forces and NATO forces had to intervene. 30 soldiers and 52 protesters were injured.
Western powers rushed to call for de-escalation after violent clashes on Monday, questioning the legitimacy of elected mayors in Serb-majority towns. In fact, the United States, a regular ally of Pristina, applied a first sanction on Tuesday, excluding Kosovo from a program of military exercises.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who on Wednesday declared that “the Kosovo authorities are responsible for the riots” has spoken along the same lines, and assured that he intends to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia later this week.
The Kremlin has not been slow to react either and on Wednesday morning has called to “respect” the “rights” of the Kosovar Serbs to whom it said it provides “unconditional support.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov has warned against “provocative actions” that would undermine the rights of Serbs and has expressed the Kremlin’s “concern” about the situation in Kosovo.
With the specters of the war in Ukraine looming over the continent, in the middle of last year the European Union, with the support of Washington, urgently drew up a plan to bring Serbia and Kosovo to the negotiating table and put an end to latent tensions. . The agreement was conditional on the creation of an association of municipalities with a Serb majority in Kosovo, and on an informal recognition of Kosovo by Serbia, which would allow it to integrate international organizations. However, the last round of talks held in North Macedonia was sealed with a mere verbal agreement that has not yet been translated into any concrete measure.
As of this week, some 3,800 NATO troops were stationed in Kosovo, mainly on peacekeeping duties, but also to guard the borders, especially the one with Serbia, where Belgrade has been beefing up its troop presence. As NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on Tuesday, the Atlantic Alliance has sent 700 more soldiers to Kosovo to quell violent protests and has placed a battalion on standby in case the riots spread.
The outcome of the altercations is unpredictable. However, local sources consulted by La Vanguardia claim “not to be close to de-escalation”, since there is a demonstration by Kosovar Albanians scheduled for Thursday in Pristina.
Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti, assured in statements to CNN that he did not intend to hand over the country to what he described as a “fascist militia”: “As long as there is a violent crowd outside the building, (…) I need police officers who uphold the rule of law and maintain order, peace and security.”
As the former president of the majority party in Kosovo, Visar Ymeri, declared to La Vanguardia, the solution involves “holding elections again” in these towns with a Serb majority and establishing a “dialogue that attacks the root of the problem” instead of limiting itself to “for violence”.
