Serbia put its troops on the border with Kosovo on the highest state of alert on Friday following clashes between ethnic Serbs and Kosovo police that left more than a dozen injured on both sides.
The Serbs, who represent a majority in northern Kosovo, were trying to block the entrance of municipal buildings to prevent recently-elected ethnic Albanian officials from entering.
Police fired tear gas and several cars were set ablaze in the town of Zvecan.
In response to the clashes, Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic said that he put the army on a “highest state of alert”.
Mr Vucic also said that he ordered an “urgent” movement of Serbian troops closer to the border with Kosovo.
Serbs living in four north Kosovo municipalities shunned the April 23rd vote in protest that their demands for more autonomy had not been met - a new setback for a March peace deal between Kosovo and Serbia.
The Kosovo police said five of its officers were slightly injured in Zevcan when protesters pelted them with rocks and other objects. Four police vehicles were attacked, including one that was set ablaze, the statement said. Gunfire was also heard in the area, it said.
About 10 people sought medical attention in a local hospital for light injuries and the effects of tear gas, local Serb health authorities said.
Serbian defence minister Milos Vucevic said the military is acting on the president’s orders because the situation in Kosovo has become “dramatic.” He accused Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders of “terrorising” the Serb minority.
Blerim Vela, chief of staff of Kosovo’s president Vjosa Osmani accused “Serbia’s illegal and criminal structures” for escalating tensions and actions against law enforcement bodies. ”Violence will not prevail. Serbia bears full responsibility for the escalation,” he said in a statement.
Several vehicles from the Nato peacekeeping mission in Kosovo could be seen in the vicinity of the site of the incident, while helicopters flew over the area.
The United States ambassador to Kosovo Jeffrey Hovenier condemned the police action. “The US condemns the ongoing action by Kosovan authorities to access municipal buildings in the north of Kosovo. Today’s violent measures should be immediately terminated,” he said.
The protests follow widely-boycotted local elections. The election turnout was 3.47 per cent and local Serbs said they would not work with the new mayors in the four municipalities - all from ethnic Albanian parties - because they do not represent them.
Ethnic Albanians form more than 90 per cent of Kosovo’s 1.8 million population, with Serbs only the majority in the northern region.
Serbs in Kosovo’s northern region do not accept Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, almost a decade after the end of a war there, and still see Belgrade as their capital.
A Western-backed plan verbally agreed to by the Kosovo and Serbian governments in March aimed to defuse tensions by granting local Serbs more autonomy, with the government in Pristina retaining ultimate authority.
The conflict in Kosovo erupted in 1998 when separatist ethnic Albanians rebelled against Serbia’s rule, and Serbia responded with a brutal crackdown. About 13,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians, died. Nato’s military intervention in 1999 eventually forced Serbia to pull out of the territory.
Washington and most EU countries have recognised Kosovo as an independent state, but Serbia, Russia and China have not. - Reuters/AP