CNN
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Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti told CNN on Tuesday that he would not hand over the country to what he described as a Serbian “fascist militia”, following violent protests in northern Kosovo following the installation of mayors of Albanian origin during contested elections.
Dozens of NATO peacekeepers were injured on Monday after clashes with Serbian protesters who tried to prevent newly elected mayors from taking office in the northern municipality of Zvecan.
NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) announced on Tuesday that it would deploy additional forces to the region following the clashes, in which some of its peacekeepers were injured by batons, guns and Molotov cocktails. Protesters gathered again on Wednesday in front of municipal buildings in Zvecan, according to Serbian state media.
“We are not facing peaceful protesters, we are facing a crowd of extremists,” Kurti told CNN. “This is a fascist militia that attacked our police and our NATO soldiers – as well as the journalists who were on the ground.”
Valdrin Xhemaj/Reuters
Ethnic Serbs protested against the installation of ethnic Albanian mayors.
However, Kurti’s government has been criticized by the United States and others for “escalating” the conflict.
“The Kosovo government’s decision to force access to municipal buildings has escalated tensions in a brutal and unnecessary manner,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Prime Minister Kurti and his government should ensure that elected mayors carry out their transition functions from other locations outside municipal buildings and withdraw police forces from the surrounding area,” Blinken said.
Following Blinken’s statement, the United States announced a series of measures against Kosovo to respond to the “unnecessary” crisis, including canceling its participation in joint NATO exercises led by the United States.
French President Emmanuel Macron also said on Wednesday that Kosovo authorities were responsible for rising tensions in the northern region.
“We made it clear to the Kosovo authorities that it was a mistake to proceed with these elections in this context of virtual non-participation,” Macron said at a joint press conference in Slovakia on Wednesday, referring to the Serbian boycott of the vote.
Asked by CNN’s Isa Soares if he would heed calls to withdraw Kosovo police from northern municipalities, Kurti replied: “As long as there is a violent crowd outside the building, I cannot have only (a) a few police officers. I need a police force that will maintain order, peace and security.
“All international bodies have recognized the elections we had. Once you recognize the electoral process and its results, mayors must address municipalities. Who else should be in these municipal buildings but the mayors? he added.
Monday’s violence erupted after months of tensions flared in northern Kosovo following contentious local elections.
On November 5, four mayors belonging to the Serbian List party collectively resigned, Kurti told CNN.
They resigned in part to protest the issue of car license plates. Kosovo has for years wanted Serbs living in the north to replace their Serbian license plates with those issued by Pristina, Kosovo’s capital.
In July, Kosovo’s government announced a two-month deadline to change license plates, but pushed back the date following protests. When the new date came in November, four ethnic Serb mayors resigned, along with local judges and some 600 police officers, according to Reuters.
After that, Kurti declared that the elections should be postponed again, this time to April.
However, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called on Serbs in the region to boycott the elections, saying they should no longer tolerate a foreign “occupation”. The Serbian List supported the boycott, letting candidates of Albanian origin run unchallenged.
After polls closed, election officials said only about 1,567 people had voted in the four Serb-majority municipalities – a turnout of just 3.5 percent according to local media. In Zvecan, the site of Monday’s violence, the Albanian mayor won the election by just over 100 votes, sparking cries that his authority is illegitimate.
“The turnout was quite low due to pressure, blackmail and threats from Belgrade towards all Serbian citizens – and especially those who were planning to run,” Kurti told CNN.
“We now have four mayors whose legitimacy is weak. But nevertheless, there is no one more legitimate than them. We must have the rule of law. We are a democratic republic,” he added.
Meliza Haradinaj, Kosovo’s former foreign minister, told CNN that “the elections were subsequently deemed fair and democratic by all Quint countries,” referring to the informal decision-making group made up of the United States, United Kingdom, from Germany, France and Italy.
“Now that newly democratically elected mayors (ethnic Albanians) want to start working in their municipal offices, the world has witnessed violent Serbian gangs forcibly preventing the advent of democracy,” Haradinaj said.
Laura Hasani/Reuters
Dozens of KFOR soldiers were injured during Monday’s clashes.
But many ethnic Serbs in the region feel underrepresented. The majority of Kosovo Serbs live in the northern regions and are increasingly demanding greater autonomy from the ethnic Albanian majority.
Kurti’s government has been accused of preventing the establishment of autonomous municipalities for Serbs, provided for under the terms of the 2013 Brussels agreement negotiated by the European Union and aimed at normalizing relations between the Balkan neighbors .
Under the agreement, Serbia could create “autonomous municipalities” in northern Kosovo, but these would have to operate under the Kosovo legal system, with the Kosovo police remaining the sole law enforcement authority.
More than a decade later, these municipalities have not been created, allowing disputes to fester over the degree of autonomy for Kosovo Serbs.
“We have a Serbian community in Kosovo which represents 4% of the population. 93% are Albanian. And the rest, 3%, are made up of other minorities: Roma, Bosniaks, Turks, Egyptians, Gorani. We want to live in a multicultural society,” Kurti told CNN.
“But we cannot have a privileged minority because Belgrade regrets the loss of Kosovo in 1999, when NATO intervened to end the genocide of (Slobodan) Milosevic’s regime,” he added.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 following the 1998-99 war in which Kosovo Albanians attempted to secede from what was then Yugoslavia, made up of today’s Serbia and Montenegro. . NATO intervened to protect Kosovo’s Albanian majority from a campaign of ethnic cleansing orchestrated by Milosevic, including carrying out an aerial bombing campaign across Yugoslavia.
“Kosovo is a success story of NATO intervention – that’s what bothers both Belgrade and the Kremlin,” Kurti told CNN.
Kurti drew stark contrasts between Kosovo and neighboring Serbia, saying: “We are a democratic and pro-European republic. Our northern neighbor, Serbia, is a pro-Russian autocracy. So there’s not much democracy there, even if they have elections – since they have a party, a state, a leader.”
He also claimed that many of the “right-wing ultra-nationalists” who demonstrated in Kosovo on Monday “are paid and commanded from Belgrade and admire the despot President Putin.”
“The situation is clear: Serbia does not want peace, because it agrees to maintain tensions in northern Kosovo so that the West diverts its attention from Ukraine,” Haradinaj told CNN. “This is Putin’s plan: to make the Balkans the next stage of the war in Ukraine.”
Some fear that Vucic, who remains involved in political unrest at homealso attempts to use Serbian nationalism as a rallying cry for its supporters.
In his comments on Tuesday, Vucic claimed that violence in Kosovo could pose a threat to ethnic Serbs in the region, saying Serbia was “concerned about the survival and security of Serbs in Kosovo.”
“Kosovo is helping him,” Bosko Jaksic, a foreign policy commentator in Belgrade, told CNN.
“He builds his patriotic stature on Kosovo. He is a great defender of the Serbian cause. He is the savior of the Serbian people… All this rhetoric that we have heard many times before is being used again. And there are a lot of people who buy it.
Protesters gathered again on Wednesday in Zvecan, with local government employees, who worked for the former mayor of Serbian origin, gathering in front of municipal buildings, according to Serbian state media RTS.
Protesters also waved a 250-meter-long Serbian flag in the streets of Zvecan and displayed other flags on barriers and riot fences erected by KFOR troops.