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30-05-2023
BRUSSELS: NATO peacekeeping soldiers have formed security cordons around four town halls in Kosovo to keep back Serbs protesting against ethnic Albanian mayors taking office in a Serb-majority area after elections they boycotted.
In Zvecan, one of the towns in north Kosovo, state police staffed entirely by ethnic Albanians after all Serbs quit the force last year sprayed pepper gas to repel a crowd of Serbs who broke through a security barricade on Monday and tried to force their way into the municipality building, witnesses said.
In Leposavic, close to the border with Serbia, US peacekeeping troops in anti-riot gear placed barbed wire around the municipality building to protect it from hundreds of angry Serbs gathering nearby.
“This morning, the NATO-led KFOR mission has increased its presence in four municipalities of northern Kosovo following the latest developments in the area,” a statement by KFOR, or Kosovo Force, said.
“In line with its mandate, KFOR is ready to take all necessary actions to ensure a safe environment in a neutral and impartial manner,” it said, adding that KFOR’s commander was in close contact with the security organs of Kosovo and Serbia.
The peacekeepers also acted to protect the town halls in Zubin Potok and North Mitrovica from possible threats.
Serbs, who form a majority in Kosovo’s north, have never accepted its 2008 declaration of independence from 
Serbia and still see Belgrade as their capital more than 20 years after the Kosovo Albanian uprising there against repressive Serbian rule.
Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90 percent of the population in Kosovo as a whole, but northern Serbs have long demanded the implementation of a European Union-brokered 2013 deal for the creation of an association of autonomous municipalities in their area.
In April this year, Serbs refused to take part in local elections, and ethnic Albanian candidates won the mayoral races in four Serb-majority municipalities with a 3.5 percent turnout.
Serbs demand that the Kosovo government remove ethnic Albanian mayors from town halls and allow local administrations financed by Belgrade to return to their duties. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
