Kosovo: Serb protests continue in north, tension remains

Also today in northern Kosovo, where interethnic tensions remain high, local Serbs rallied in front of the municipalities of Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok to protest the election of new ethnic Albanian mayors and to demand the withdrawal of Kosovo police units from the north. The night passed quietly and without any excesses, with police deployed inside municipal buildings, while outside there remains a massive garrison by troops from Kfor, the NATO mission in Kosovo. After violent clashes on May 29 in Zvecan, municipal offices have been cordoned off by metal barriers and barbed-wire fences, on which Serbs have placed numerous Serb flags. In Leposavic, new mayor Ljuljzim Hetemi, an ethnic Albanian, has been inside the town hall for days, from which he does not leave for security reasons. Throughout the Serb-majority north, schools remain closed, while municipal services are inaccessible due to popular protests.

The looming demand is for a repeat of the local elections in the north, which were boycotted on April 23 by the Serbs and resulted in the election of Albanian mayors. EU and U.S. envoys Miroslav Lajcak and Gabriel Escobar will arrive in the region Monday in an effort to defuse what is feared could be possible new conflict in the Balkans of unpredictable consequences.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti reiterated that he is not opposed to holding new local elections in northern Kosovo, but that law and the rule of law must be restored first, with an end to Serb protests. In an interview with Nbc News, taken up in part by the media in Belgrade, Kurti said that "next week the special envoys of the European Union and the United States Lajcak and Escobar will arrive in Kosovo and we will talk about the details. I believe in new elections, but for that we need rule of law and a free and fair campaign for free and fair elections." Kurti admitted that the new mayors who were elected on April 23 have a low degree of legitimacy due to low voter turnout, but added that they are "the only legal and legitimate mayors." The extremists and criminals responsible for the violence in the north, Kurti said, must answer before the courts, after which conditions will be created for a new campaign and free and democratic elections. At the same time, the premier denied that Kosovar police used force in confronting Serb demonstrators in the north. For Kurti, it is not the Serbian people that should be brought into the picture, but some well-orchestrated violent masses aimed at destabilizing Kosovo.

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