NATO Soldiers-Serbs Clashes Leave Dozens Injured in Kosovo

On Monday, over 50 civilians and more than 40 NATO soldiers were injured in a clash between NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) and Serb protesters in front of the Zvecan municipality building in northern Kosovo.

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KFOR units were trying to disperse a group of Serbs who protested after Kosovo police took control of the administrative buildings in Zvecan and two other municipalities in majority-Serb north of Kosovo.

A member of the Regional Operations Support Unit of Kosovo Police (ROSU), not a member of KFOR, fired several bullets in the direction of the retreating Serbs and hit local Serb Dragisa Galjak with two bullets. Serbs responded with stones and in other ways.

Kosovo’s Serbs boycotted the April 23 local elections in four municipalities in north of Kosovo, which allowed ethnic Albanian parties to take control of local administrations despite a turnover of less than 3.5 percent.

Due to the intensification of ethnic clashes in Kosovo, Serbia has put the country’s armed forces on the level of combat readiness and sent its forces along the administrative line.

On Tuesday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called on the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom to use their influence to get the Kosovar government to remove mayors from northern Kosovo municipalities where Serbs are in the majority.

After meeting with the ambassadors in Serbia from those countries, Vucic accused the Pristina government of discriminating and acting violently against the Serb community, a minority among the Kosovo Albanian population, but the majority in the north of the country.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Serbia rejects it and considers Kosovo its own province.

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