Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Oslo that the decision had been made to send 700 more troops to Kosova and to place an additional battalion on high alert in case it needs to be deployed. NATO has some 4,000 troops currently in Kosova.
The NATO-led peacekeeping force said on Monday that 25 of its troops were injured in clashes with ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo as they tried to block the newly elected Albanian mayors from accessing the municipal offices. “Several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices,” the NATO peacekeepers statement said.
The ethnic Serbs clashed with NATO troops and Kosovo police in the municipality of Zvecan, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the capital. The soldiers fired tear gas and stun grenades to protect the Kosovar officers and disperse protesters, according to witnesses. The Serb protestors responded by throwing rocks and other hard objects at them, AP news reported.
The United States and the European Union have stepped up efforts to mediate the Kosovo-Serbia dispute, fearing further instability in Europe as Russia’s war rages in Ukraine. Serbia has put its military on high alert. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov wasted no time in laying blame on the US and NATO. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia to immediately de-escalate tensions, saying the clashes were “absolutely unacceptable”. US Ambassador Jeff Hovenier met with Kosova President Vjosa Osmani. Together they held meetings with the ambassadors of the U.S., France, Italy, Germany and the UK.
On Monday, Kosovar police and the NATO-led Kosovo Force, (KFOR) were seen protecting the municipal buildings in Zvecan, Leposavic, Zubin Potok and Mitrovica, four municipalities in the north that held early elections last month, AP news reports. The votes were largely boycotted by ethnic Serbs, who form the majority in those areas. Only ethnic Albanian or other smaller minority representatives were elected to the mayoral posts and assemblies. The protests started on Friday, which was the first day of work for the newly elected mayors, when dozens of citizens and policemen were injured. Kosovo police fired tear gas to disperse the crowd and let the new officials into the offices, before the NATO-led peacekeepers intervened.
In the capital, Pristina, the new mayors of Zvecan, Ilir Peci, and of Zubin Potok, Izmir Zeqiri, met the EU Ambassador in Kosovo, Tomas Szunyog, and US Ambassador, Jeffrey Hovenier.
Reports say that journalists were targeted by Serbs in Northern Kosova and their vehicles were damaged and sprayed with Serb nationalist symbols. The Association of Journalists of Kosovo registered around 18 attacks on media crews on Friday, Monday and Tuesday.
Source: AP News, Reuters Reporting