- Serbian president says reports about troop build up on the Kosovo border ‘not fully accurate’ CNN
- Serbia says it has reduced army presence near Kosovo after US expressed concern over troop buildup The Associated Press
- NATO-Guarded Kosovo Fears Invasion By Russian Ally; Serbia’s War-Like Border Deployment Spooks West Hindustan Times
- Kosovo says Serbia’s behaviour same as Russia’s before Ukraine invasion Reuters.com
- Grant Shapps uses conference speech to announce troop deployment to Poland and Kosovo The Times and The Sunday Times
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Tag Archives: Kosovo
Romania beats Kosovo 2-0 in temporarily suspended match due to fans’ ‘discriminatory behavior’ – CNN
- Romania beats Kosovo 2-0 in temporarily suspended match due to fans’ ‘discriminatory behavior’ CNN
- Romania beat Kosovo in match suspended after Serbia chants Reuters
- Romania-Kosovo soccer game in Euro 2024 qualifying stopped because of home fans’ pro-Serbia chants The Associated Press
- Romania and Kosovo’s Euro 2024 qualifier suspended for 45 minutes after discriminatory fan behaviour The Athletic
- How to Watch Romania vs Kosovo: Stream 2024 UEFA Euro Qualifying Live, TV Channel Sports Illustrated
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Top US and EU lawmakers say West is too soft on Serbia when it comes to easing Kosovo tensions – The Associated Press
- Top US and EU lawmakers say West is too soft on Serbia when it comes to easing Kosovo tensions The Associated Press
- Serbia Issues Dire Warning To Ukraine Amid Russia War, “Will Lose Everything In One Day…” | Details Hindustan Times
- US and EU leaders urged to change tack on Kosovo-Serbia tensions The Guardian
- Kosovar PM Welcomes European, U.S. Warning Against ‘Belgrade-Centered’ Policy Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
- If Ukraine recognises Kosovo, it will “lose everything in one day” – Serbian President Yahoo News
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French Open: Novak Djokovic’s Comments on Kosovo Irks France’s Sports Minister |Vantage on Firstpost – Firstpost
- French Open: Novak Djokovic’s Comments on Kosovo Irks France’s Sports Minister |Vantage on Firstpost Firstpost
- Elina Svitolina comments on Novak Djokovic political message that sparked controversy Tennis World USA
- Novak Djokovic vs Marton Fucsovics – Round 2 Highlights I Roland-Garros 2023 Roland-Garros
- Djoko row: ‘We’re living in a free world so why not say your opinion’ Rediff.com
- “There’s no snake oil or magical healing crystal that Novak Djokovic doesn’t believe in” – Tennis fans react to Serb’s French Open chest device Sportskeeda
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NATO declines Serbia’s request to deploy its troops in Kosovo
SHTERPCE, Kosovo Jan 8 (Reuters) – NATO’s mission in Kosovo, KFOR, has declined a Serbian government request to send up to 1,000 police and army personnel to Kosovo after clashes between Serbs and the Kosovo authorities, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday.
Serbia’s former province of Kosovo declared independence in 2008 following the 1998-1999 war during which NATO bombed rump-Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, to protect Albanian-majority Kosovo.
“They (KFOR) replied they consider that there is no need for the return of the Serbian army to Kosovo … citing the United Nations resolution approving their mandate in Kosovo,” Serbia’s Vucic said in an interview with the private Pink television.
Last month, for the first time since the end of the war, Serbia requested to deploy troops in Kosovo in response to clashes between Kosovo authorities and Serbs in the northern region where they constitute a majority.
The U. N. Security Council resolution says Serbia may be allowed, if approved by KFOR, to station its personnel at border crossings, Orthodox Christian religious sites and areas with Serb majorities.
Vucic criticised KFOR for informing Serbia of its decision on the eve of the Christian Orthodox Christmas, after Kosovo police arrested an off-duty soldier suspected of shooting and wounding two young Serbs near the southern town of Shterpce.
Police said both victims, aged 11 and 21, were taken to hospital and their injuries were not life threatening.
Kosovo authorities condemned the incident, which has inflamed tensions.
On Sunday, a few thousands Serbs protested peacefully in Shterpce against what they called “violence against Serbs”.
Goran Rakic, the head of the Serb List, which is the main Serb party in Kosovo, accused Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti of trying to drive out Serbs.
“His goal is to create such conditions so that Serbs leave their homes,” Rakic told the crowd. “My message is that we must not surrender.”
Serbian media reported that another young man was allegedly attacked and beaten up by a group of Albanians early on Saturday, while media in Pristina reported that a Kosovo bus going to Germany through Serbia was attacked and its windscreen broken with rocks late that same day.
International organisations condemned the attacks, expected to deepen mistrust between majority ethnic Albanians and around 100,000 ethnic Serbs that live in Kosovo. Half of them live in the north and most refuse to recognise Kosovo’s independence.
Additional reporting and writing by Daria Sito-Sucic in Sarajevo; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Barbara Lewis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Serbs in northern Kosovo to start removing barricades from Thursday
MITROVICA, Kosovo, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Kosovo Serbs who have been blocking roads in northern Kosovo for 19 days have agreed to start removing barricades from Thursday morning, bowing to calls by the United States and European Union to defuse tensions.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic who met Serbs from northern Kosovo in the Serbian town of Raska said the process of removing barricades will begin on Thursday morning.
“It is a long process and it will take a while,” Vucic said.
He also added that the United States and European Union, which are mediating talks between Belgrade and Pristina to resolve outstanding bilateral issues, have guaranteed that none of the Serbs who set up barricades will be prosecuted.
Removal of the barricades is expected to defuse tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.
For more than 20 years, Kosovo has been a source of tension between the West, which backed its independence, and Russia, which supports Serbia in its efforts to block Kosovo’s membership of global organisations including the United Nations.
The United States, NATO and European Union urged maximum restraint in the north of Kosovo, as authorities closed a third border crossing on Wednesday and tensions escalated with local Serbs over its 2008 independence.
NATO’s mission in Kosovo, KFOR, said it supported dialogue between all parties to defuse tensions, which have included Serb roadblocks on major arteries by trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles and violent clashes with police.
Serbia put its army on its highest alert on Monday.
The Kremlin, for its part, denied Kosovo interior minister’s claims that Russia was influencing Serbia to destabilise Kosovo, saying that Serbia was defending the rights of ethnic Serbs.
[1/3] Locals walk near a roadblock in the northern part of the ethnically-divided town of Mitrovica, Kosovo, December 28, 2022. REUTERS/Florion Goga
A former Kosovo Serb policeman, whose arrest triggered violent protests by Kosovo’s Serb minority, was released from custody and put under house arrest after a request from the prosecutors’ office, a spokesperson for the Pristina Basic Court told Reuters.
Dejan Pantic was arrested on Dec. 10 for assaulting a serving police officer. Since then, Serbs in northern Kosovo have exchanged fire with police and erected more than 10 roadblocks, demanding his release.
The court decision angered Kosovo government officials, including Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Justice Minister Albulena Haxhiu.
“I don’t know how to understand it and how it is possible that someone who is accused of such a serious crime related to terrorism goes to house arrest,” Haxhiu said.
“I am very curious to see who is the prosecutor who makes this request, who is the judge of preliminary procedure that approves it,” Kurti said.
Pantic was one of many Serbs who left the police and other institutions after Pristina said it would enforce a law requiring Serbs to scrap Serbian-issued car licence plates dating back to before the 1998-99 guerrilla uprising that led to Kosovo’s independence.
Serbs in northern Kosovo, which they believe to be still part of Serbia, resist any moves they see as anti-Serb.
Two border crossings between Serbia and Kosovo were closed on Dec. 10 and a third one, the biggest one for road freight, Merdare, was closed to traffic on Wednesday, disrupting journeys of Kosovars working elsewhere in Europe from returning home for the holidays.
Around 50,000 Serbs living in northern Kosovo refuse to recognise the government in Pristina or the status of Kosovo as a separate country. They have the support of many Serbs in Serbia and its government.
Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence with the backing of the West, following a 1998-99 war in which NATO intervened to protect ethnic Albanian citizens.
Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Ivana Sekularac, Andrew Heavens, Nick Macfie, Barbara Lewis and Himani Sarkar
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Kosovo closes main border crossing after roadblock in Serbia
MERDARE, Kosovo, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Kosovo closed its biggest border crossing with Serbia on Wednesday after protesters blocked it on the Serbian side to support their ethnic kin in Kosovo in refusing to recognise the country’s independence.
Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have been running high since last month when representatives of ethnic Serbs in the north of Kosovo left state institutions including the police and judiciary over the Kosovo government’s decision to replace Serbian issued car licence plates.
Kosovan Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla said on Tuesday Serbia, under the influence of Russia, was aiming to destabilise Kosovo. Serbia denies it is trying to destabilise its neighbour and says it just wants to protect its minority there.
The Kremlin on Wednesday also denied the Kosovan accusations but said it supported Belgrade. “Serbia is a sovereign country and it is absolutely wrong to look for Russia’s destructive influence here,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
For over 20 years, Kosovo has been a source of tension between the West which backed its independence and Russia which supports Serbia in its efforts to block the country’s membership in international organisations including United Nations.
Since Dec. 10, Serbs in northern Kosovo have exchanged fire with police and erected more than 10 roadblocks in and around Mitrovica. Their action followed the arrest of a former Serb policeman accused of assaulting serving police officers.
Serbia on Monday put its troops on highest alert. Late on Tuesday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, who said Serbia was continuing to fight peace and seek a compromise, inspected the troops close to the border.
CROSSING BLOCKED
[1/7] A view of Merdare border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia which was closed by Kosovo after protesters blocked it on the Serbian side to support their ethnic kin in Kosovo in refusing to recognise the country’s independence, near Podujevo, Kosovo, December 28, 2022. REUTERS/Florion Goga
Serbs in Serbia used a truck and tractors on Tuesday to create the latest roadblock, close to the Merdare crossing on Kosovo’s eastern border, Belgrade-based media reported.
The government in Pristina has asked NATO’s peacekeeping force for the country, KFOR, to clear the barricades. But KFOR has no authority to act on Serbian soil.
Kosovo’s Foreign Ministry announced on its Facebook page the Merdare crossing had been closed since midnight, saying: “If you have already entered Serbia then you have to use other border crossings … or go through North Macedonia.”
The Merdare entry point is Kosovo’s most important for road freight, as well as complicating the journeys of Kosovars working elsewhere in Europe from returning home for holidays.
With two smaller crossings on the Serbian border in the north closed since Dec. 10, only three entry points between the two countries remain open.
Pristina main airport was also closed on Tuesday morning over a bomb threat, Kosovo police said in a statement. Police did not say if it was related to the recent tensions.
Serbian Defence Minister, Milos Vucevic, said Vucic was in talks with the so called Quint group of the United States, Italy, France, Germany and Britain about the current tensions can be resolved.
Around 50,000 Serbs living in ethnically divided northern Kosovo refuse to recognise the government in Pristina or the status of Kosovo as a country separate from Serbia. They have the support of many Serbs in Serbia and its government.
Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the West, following a 1998-99 war in which NATO intervened to protect ethnic Albanian citizens.
Reporting by Fatos Bytyci; Editing by Bradley Perrett and Alison Williams
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Kosovo minister sees Russian influence in growing Serbian tension | Conflict News
Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla accused Belgrade of supporting Serbian protesters as a means to destabilise Kosovo.
Kosova’s Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla has accused Serbia, under the influence of Russia, of attempting to destabilise his country by supporting the Serb minority in northern Kosovo who have blocked roads in an escalation of weeks of protests.
Serbs in the ethnically-divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo erected new barricades on Tuesday, hours after Serbia said it had put its military on the highest combat footing following weeks of escalating tensions between Belgrade and Pristina over the protests.
The new barriers, made of heavily-loaded trucks, were put in place overnight in Mitrovica and represent the first time since the recent crisis started that Serbs have blocked streets in one of Kosovo’s main towns. Until now, barricades had been set on roads leading to the Kosovo-Serbia border.
The trucks have been parked to block the road linking the Serb-majority part of the town to the Albanian-majority part.
“It is precisely Serbia, influenced by Russia, that has raised a state of military readiness and that is ordering the erection of new barricades, in order to justify and protect the criminal groups that terrorize,” Svecla said in a statement on Tuesday.
Serbia denies it is trying to destabilise its neighbour Kosovo and says it only wants to protect the Serbian minority living in what is now Kosovan territory but is not recognised by Belgrade.
Belgrade has placed its army and police on the highest alert, saying that the order was necessary as it believes that Kosovo is preparing to attack Serbs and forcefully remove the barricades.
Since December 10, Serbs in northern Kosovo have erected multiple roadblocks in and around Mitrovica and exchanged sporadic gunfire with Kosovo police following the arrest of a former Serb police officer working in the Kosovar force.
Ethnic Serb protesters are demanding the release of the arrested officer and have other demands. Their protests follow earlier unrest over the issue of car licence plates. Kosovo has for years wanted ethnic Serbs in the north to switch their Serbian car licence plates to those issued by Pristina as part of the government’s desire to assert authority over its territory. Serbs have refused to do so.
Approximately 50,000 Serbs live in the northern part of Kosovo and refuse to recognise the Pristina government or Kosovo as an independent state. They see Belgrade as their capital and want to keep their Serbian licence plates.
Kosovar officials have accused Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic of using Serbia’s state media to stir up trouble and trigger incidents that could act as a pretext for an armed intervention in the former Serbian province.
An academic at the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies, Skender Perteshi, accused Serbia and Russia of deliberate attempts to disrupt the region.
“The idea of Serbia and Russia together is to try to make conflicts and crisis anywhere where the West has a role and to increase this kind of instability in the region to increase the influence of Russia and Serbia in the region,” he suggested.
Kosovo’s former Foreign Minister Meliza Hardinaj also tweeted on Wednesday that the barricades in the north of the country were not spurred by a “lack of” Serbian community rights, but were “a direct order” from Serbia and Russia to ignite conflict.
The fact that #Vucic’s criminal gangs blocked their part of Merdare CCP w/ Republic of #Kosovo proves sharply that the illegally erected barricades in north🇽🇰 are not a protest for lack of #Serbian community rights but rather a direct order from #Serbia/#Russia to spark conflict!
— Meliza Haradinaj (@MelizaHaradinaj) December 28, 2022
Kosovo’s government has said that its police force has the capacity to remove the Serbia barricades, but they were waiting for NATO’s Kosovo peacekeeping force — KFOR — to respond to their request for peacekeepers to remove the barricades.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led European Union states to devote more energy to improving relations with the six Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, despite continuing reluctance to enlarge the EU further.
Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the West in the aftermath of a 1998-1999 war in which NATO intervened to protect ethnic Albanian citizens.
Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations and five EU states — Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus — refuse to recognise Kosovo’s statehood.
Russia, Serbia’s historical ally, is also blocking Kosovo’s membership in the UN.
Kosovo asks NATO to airlift a Serb detainee as tensions rise
PRISTINA, Dec 22 (Reuters) – (This Dec. 22 story has been corrected to say that police officers were transported by NATO via ground routes, not by helicopter, in paragraph 7)
Kosovo has asked NATO troops to airlift a former Serb policeman who was detained two weeks ago but could not be transferred elsewhere because local Serbs demanding his release set up barricades to prevent him being moved.
Dejan Pantic was arrested on Dec. 10 on charges of assaulting serving police officers during a previous protest.
Tensions have been running high since then as thousands of Kosovo Serbs protest, demanding the country’s Albanian-majority government pulls its police force out of the north, where the Serb minority is concentrated.
Local Serbs, who number around 50,000 in northern Kosovo, reiterated at a protest on Thursday that they would not remove the roadblocks unless Pantic is released.
“He (Pantic) should be in a detention center and not in a police station and that’s why we have asked our international partners to transfer him in an adequate facility,” Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla told a news conference in Mitrovica, just a few kilometers away from the first barricade.
NATO’s mission in Kosovo, KFOR, is the only force that has helicopters. Kosovo has no helicopters and would need NATO’s permission to hire one.
KFOR has already transported via ground routes nine police officers in recent days who were ill but unable to get out of the area after the roads were blocked.
The NATO force, which has more than 3,000 troops on the ground, said the KFOR commander is the sole authority to decide over Kosovo’s airspace.
“Every request that has been refused was because, as in the current situation, there were not the needed security conditions,” KFOR said in a written statement to Reuters without saying what request has been refused.
Svecla said his police force could remove the barricades but that he wanted local Serbs or NATO troops to remove them.
“For the sake of stability we are waiting for them to be removed by those who set them up or KFOR, but even waiting has its end,” he said.
Kosovo’s government has previously said people at the barricades are armed and any police intervention could harm people from both sides.
Ethnic Serb mayors in northern municipalities, along with local judges and some 600 police officers, resigned last month in protest over a Kosovo government decision to replace Serbian-issued car license plates with ones issued by Pristina.
Reporting by Fatos Bytyci, editing by Deepa Babington and Grant McCool
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Serbs in Kosovo clash with police as ethnic tensions flare
MITROVICA, Kosovo Dec 11 (Reuters) – Serb protesters in northern Kosovo blocked main roads for a second day on Sunday following a nighttime exchange of fire with police after the arrest of a former Serb policeman, amid rising tensions between authorities and Kosovo’s Serb minority.
In recent weeks Serbs in northern Kosovo – which they believe to be part of Serbia – have responded with violent resistance to moves by Pristina that they see as anti-Serb.
EULEX, the European Union mission tasked with patrolling northern Kosovo, said a stun grenade was thrown on one of its armoured vehicles on Saturday evening, but no one was injured.
Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief, warned the bloc will not tolerate violence against members of its mission.
“#EU will not tolerate attacks on @EULEXKosovo or use of violent, criminal acts in the north. Barricades must be removed immediately by groups of Kosovo Serbs. Calm must be restored,” he wrote on Twitter.
The latest protests were triggered by the arrest of a former police officer on Saturday. He was part of a mass resignation of Serbs from the force last month, after Pristina said it would require Serbs to scrap Serbian license plates dating to before the 1998-99 Kosovo War that led to independence.
For a second day on Sunday, trucks and other heavy-duty vehicles blocked several main roads leading to two border crossings with Serbia. Both crossings were closed to traffic.
“The United States expresses its deep concern about the current situation in the north of Kosovo,” the United States embassies in Belgrade and Pristina said in a statement.
“We call on everyone to exercise maximum restraint, to take immediate action to achieve a de-escalation of the situation, and to refrain from provocative acts.”
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has asked NATO’s mission KFOR to remove the barricades.
“We call KFOR to guarantee the freedom of movement (and remove roadblocks)…KFOR is asking for more time to finish this … so we are waiting,” Kurti said.
Late on Saturday Kosovo police said they came under fire in different locations close to a lake bordering Serbia. The force said it had to return fire in self-defence. There were no reports of injuries.
EU PLAN IN DANGER
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the West, following the 1998-99 war in which NATO intervened to protect Albanian-majority Kosovo.
Serb mayors in northern Kosovo municipalities, along with local judges and some 600 police officers, resigned last month in protest over a government decision to replace Belgrade-issued car licence plates with ones issued by Pristina.
Police in Pristina said former policeman Dejan Pantic was arrested for allegedly attacking state offices, the election commission offices, and police officers and election officials.
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic presided over a National Security Council meeting on Sunday. “I call on Serbs to be calm. Attacks against KFOR and EULEX must not happen,” Vucic told RTS national TV.
On Saturday, Vucic said Belgrade would ask KFOR to let Serbia deploy troops and police in Kosovo, but acknowledged there was no chance of permission being granted.
“We do not seek conflict, but dialogue and peace. But let me be clear: the Republic of Kosovo will defend itself – forcefully and decisively,” Kurti said in response to Vucic’s comments.
Kosovo and Serbia are holding talks in Brussels to try to normalise relations and the EU has already presented a plan.
Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic, Florion Goga and Ognen Teofilovski; Editing by Susan Fenton and Ros Russell
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.