Serbia destabilizing country-Kosovo
2022.12.28 12:04
Serbia destabilizing country-Kosovo
Budrigannews.com – Xhelal Svecla, the Kosovan interior minister, said on Tuesday that Serbia, influenced by Russia, was trying to destabilize Kosovo by supporting the Serb minority in the north, which has been blocking roads and protesting for nearly three weeks.
After weeks of escalating tensions between Belgrade and Pristina, Serbia announced that it had placed its army on the highest combat alert. On Tuesday, Serbs in the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo erected new barricades.
According to a statement released by Svecla, “It is precisely Serbia, influenced by Russia, that has raised a state of military readiness and is ordering the erection of new barricades, in order to justify and protect the criminal groups that terrorize… citizens of Serb ethnicity living in Kosovo.”
Serbia says it just wants to protect its minority there and denies trying to destabilize its neighbor. On Tuesday, Aleksandar Vucic, the president of Serbia, stated that the country would “continue to fight for peace and seek compromise solutions.”
Late on Monday, Belgrade announced that, in light of the most recent happenings in the region and its belief that Kosovo was preparing to attack Serbs and remove the barricades forcefully, it had placed its army and police on the highest alert.
Since the arrest of a former Serb policeman for allegedly assaulting serving officers, Serbs in northern Kosovo have erected multiple roadblocks in and around Mitrovica and exchanged fire with police since December 10.
Kosovo, a country dominated by Albanians, declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with support from the West, following a war that lasted from 1998 to 1999 and in which NATO intervened to safeguard its ethnic Albanian citizens.
Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, and Cyprus, all members of the European Union, refuse to recognize Kosovo’s statehood. Kosovo is not a member of the United Nations.
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Kosovo’s application to join the United Nations is being held up by Russia, Serbia’s historic ally.
Around 50,000 Serbs live in the northern piece of Kosovo and decline to perceive the Pristina government or the state. Belgrade is considered to be their capital.
The government of Kosovo stated that police had the ability to act and were prepared to do so, but they were waiting for a response from NATO’s KFOR Kosovo peacekeeping force to their request to remove the barricades.
Vucic stated that discussions regarding a solution to the problem were ongoing with diplomats from other nations.
On Tuesday morning, trucks were parked in Mitrovica to block the road that connects the Albanian-majority part of the town to the Serb-majority part.
Before removing the barricades, the Serbs are making other demands in addition to the officer’s release.
In protest of a Kosovo government decision to replace Serbian-issued car license plates with ones issued by Pristina, ethnic Serb mayors in northern Kosovan municipalities, local judges, and approximately 600 police officers resigned last month.
Despite their continued reluctance to expand the EU, states of the European Union have increased their efforts to improve relations with the six Balkan nations of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Serbia as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
