- Serbs Surrender 13,500 Pieces Of Unregistered Weapons After Mass Shootings Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty
- Serbia: Guns, grenades and rocket launchers among 13,500 weapons surrendered after mass shootings Yahoo News
- Serbian police display seized, surrendered guns amid government warning of “huge punishments” Global News
- Serbia: Guns, grenades and rocket launchers among 13500 weapons surrendered after mass shootings The Associated Press
- Serbian President Urges People To Disarm After Deadly Shootings Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
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Tag Archives: Serbs
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.
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.
North Kosovo Serbs quit state jobs in licence plate protest
MITROVICA, Kosovo, Nov 5 (Reuters) – Minority Serbs in the north of Kosovo said on Saturday they were quitting their posts in state institutions including the government, police and courts to protest Pristina’s order for them to start using Kosovo vehicle licence plates.
The long-running licence plate row has stoked tensions between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo, which gained independence in 2008 and is home to a small ethnic Serb minority in the north that is backed by Belgrade.
Following a meeting of Serb political representatives in the north of Kosovo, Minister of Communities and Returns Goran Rakic said he was resigning from his post in the Pristina government.
He told reporters that fellow representatives of the 50,000-strong Serb minority in the north had also quit their jobs in municipal administrations, the courts, police, and the parliament and government in Pristina.
Rakic said they would not consider returning unless Pristina abolishes the order for them to switch their old car licence plates, which date to the 1990s when Kosovo was a part of Serbia, to Kosovo state plates.
They also demanded the formation of a union of Serb municipalities giving Serb-majority districts greater autonomy, he said.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti urged the Serbs not to “boycott or abandon Kosovo’s institutions”.
“They serve all of us, every single one of you. Don’t fall prey to political manipulations and geopolitical games,” Kurti added in a Facebook post.
An interior ministry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters some police units were extending shifts to up to 12 hours from the normal eight to make up for the absence of the Serb officers.
NATO, which still has around 3,700 troops to maintain the fragile peace, asked Pristina and Belgrade to show restraint and prevent escalation.
“NATO remains vigilant and ready to intervene should stability be jeopardised,” NATO’s Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana tweeted after he spoke with the European Union’s envoy for Kosovo and Serbia, Miroslav Lajcak.
In the north side of Mitrovica, inhabited mainly by Serbs, there were no police to be seen. Some Swiss soldiers and Italian Carabinieri, part of NATO peacekeeping forces, were the only ones in uniform in the main square.
In Serbia, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said her government “stands by our brave and proud people in Kosovo”.
Kosovo’s government has said it will start issuing fines this month to Serb drivers using old pre-independence plates, and will confiscate vehicles that have not had their registration numbers changed by April 21, 2023.
Kosovo’s main backers, the United States and the European Union, have urged Kurti to postpone implementing the car plates ruling for another 10 months but he has refused.
Writing by Ivana Sekularac; editing by Helen Popper
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Serbs lift roadblocks in Kosovo as NATO moves to end car plate row
Kosovo ethnic Serbs pass through barricades near the border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia in Jarinje, Kosovo, September 28, 2021. REUTERS/Laura Hasani
JARINJE, Kosovo, Oct 2 – Kosovo’s border crossing with Serbia was reopened on Saturday as Serbs removed trucks and cars and NATO troops moved in under a European Union-mediated deal to end a dispute between the neighbouring countries over car licence plates.
Kosovo special police forces withdrew from the border crossing in the north of the country nearly two weeks after Serbs blocked roads to protest at Kosovo’s decision to introduce temporary licence plates for all cars from Serbia.
The Kosovo government said the licence plate requirement was imposed in retaliation for Serbian measures taken against drivers from Kosovo since 2008, when Kosovo declared independence from Serbia.
“From this weekend and for the next two weeks, KFOR will maintain a temporary, robust and agile presence in the area, in accordance with the mentioned arrangement,” said a statement by the NATO-led peacekeeping force, called KFOR.
Serbia, which lost control over Kosovo after NATO bombing in 1999, does not recognise Kosovo’s independence and therefore its right to take actions such as registering cars.
This month’s confrontation boiled over into violence, but the two countries – with mediation by EU special envoy Miroslav Lajcak – struck a deal on Thursday.
Under the deal, stickers will be used on licence plates to cover state symbols, and NATO, which has some 3,000 troops in Kosovo, will be allowed to control the area.
Local Serbs chatted on Saturday with Slovenian soldiers, who are part of the NATO force, as they removed barricades while Kosovo police vehicles stood at the border crossing.
The deadline for their withdrawal was 4 p.m. (1400 GMT).
As Serbia moves towards EU membership it must resolve all outstanding issues with Kosovo. The two parties agreed to an EU-mediated dialogue in 2013, but little progress has been made.
Kosovo’s independence was backed by Western countries including the United States and Britain, but it is still not recognised by five EU member states and its membership of the United Nations is blocked by Serbia’s traditional ally Russia.
Reporting by Fatos Bytyci
Editing by Ivana Sekularac, Alexander Smith and Helen Popper
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.