“We must all come together and do everything we can to preserve peace. We are effectively on the brink of armed conflict because of Pristina’s unilateral actions,” Branabic told a press conference with several Serbian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Belgrade.
Hundreds of Serbs from northern Kosovo have continued to block roads, including heavy vehicles, preventing movement toward two border crossings with Serbia since December 10 after the arrest of a former Serbian policeman.
Hours after installing the barricades, Kosovar police reported being hit by gunfire, but no injuries.
European Union (EU) police, deployed to the area as part of the EULEX mission, were hit by a stun grenade, and there were no reports of injuries.
Recent tensions have been particularly central in Kosovo’s north, where a third of the roughly 150,000 Kosovar Serbs are concentrated, and when Pristina announced its intention to hold elections in Serb-majority municipalities after all elected officials resigned. Serbian police in the region.
Pristina officials decided to postpone the vote until April 2023.
The NATO-led peacekeeping force in Kosovo (Kfor) has strengthened its presence in the north by sending additional troops and patrols, the force’s commander, Italian General Angelo Michele Ristuccia, revealed on Friday in a statement released by the alliance.
The announcement ensures that Kfor has “all the capabilities, including personnel, to ensure a safe environment and freedom of movement for all communities across Kosovo.”
On Friday, Serbia asked KFOR for authorization to send troops and police to northern Kosovo, but has so far received no response.
The Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, has already insisted that it is “almost certain” that the request “will not be accepted”.
Belgrade has never recognized the unilateral secession of its former southern province, which it declared in 2008 following a war started by an Albanian armed insurgency in 1997 that claimed 13,000 lives, mostly Albanians, and prompted NATO military intervention against Serbia in 1999.
Since then, the region has recorded occasional clashes between the two main local communities in a country with a third of Alentejo’s surface area and about 1.8 million people, majority ethnic Albanians and Muslims.
Apart from Spain, Romania, an independent Kosovo is recognized by about 100 countries, including the United States, which has strong influence over the Kosovar leadership, as well as Greece, Slovakia and Cyprus.
On Tuesday, the Spanish government pledged that the country would not support Kosovo’s bid to join the European Union (EU) because it would not legalize the secession of the former Serbian province.
Serbia considers Kosovo an integral part of its territory and Belgrade benefits from the support of Russia and China, which, like dozens of other countries (including India, Brazil or South Africa), do not recognize Kosovo’s independence.
Belgrade and Kosovar Serbs also accuse Pristina of systematically blocking the formation of a union of Serbian municipalities, foreseen in bilateral agreements signed in 2013 and mediated by the European Union, which would allow the community significant autonomy.
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