The NATO mission in Kosovo, KFOR, had to intervene today to contain the violent protests by Serbs in northern Kosovo, who refuse to accept the authority of the mayors of four municipalities where they are the majority, and who have left at least 50 demonstrators and 25 soldiers injured.
KFOR reported that 25 of its soldiers, of Hungarian and Italian nationality, were injured with fractures, bruises and burns caused by incendiary devices.
The NATO mission resorted to the use of tear gas and stun bombs to disperse the protesters, who were blocking access to the Town Hall in the town of Zvecan, where the most violent clashes have been recorded.
More than 50 people were treated in a hospital for ailments caused by tear gas poisoning and bruises, three of them were hospitalized and one person suffered serious gunshot wounds and his life is in danger, reported the director of the Mitrovica Clinical Center, Zlatan Elek, according to the N1 station.
The Serbs, a majority in these municipalities, but a minority in Kosovo, do not recognize the authority of the mayors, who belong to the country’s Albanian majority. The councilors were elected last April in elections that the Serbs boycotted and in which participation barely exceeded 3%.
The United States and the European Union have condemned the attacks by international troops and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her “strongest condemnation of the attack.” Among those injured in the riots in Kosovo there are 11 Italian soldiers, three seriously, although their lives are not in danger, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced on social networks.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, accused the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, of provoking the incidents, having used special police forces three days ago to force the entry of the mayors to the Town Halls, which were blocked by protesters. Serbs.
The United States and several European countries have already condemned Kosovo’s use of force, and the United States has even proposed that mayors perform their functions from other buildings, to help calm the situation.
Vucic called on the Kosovo Serbs to demonstrate peacefully and “not to enter into conflict with NATO.”
Kosovo, a former Serbian province populated by a large majority of Albanians, proclaimed its independence in 2008, which Serbia does not recognize. Both countries are negotiating the normalization of their relations on a new plan of the European Union, supported by the United States, in a process frequently interrupted by the outbreak of tensions.
