The brief history of Kosovo, independent since 2008, has never witnessed such tensions between Pristina and its Western sponsors. On Wednesday, May 31, American, French and British leaders all blamed Prime Minister Albin Kurti for his role in the sharp rise in tensions in recent days in the north of this small Balkan country, which has been under NATO protection since its war with Serbia in 1999.
From Slovakia, where he was taking part in the Globsec Forum on security in Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron felt that "it is very clear that Kosovar authorities bear responsibility for the current situation." US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also criticized Pristina for "abruptly and unnecessarily escalating tensions" with its decision on May 26 to install Albanian mayors in four predominantly Serb municipalities around the divided city of Mitrovica. The United States has even decided to cancel Kosovo's participation in a defense exercise currently being conducted in Europe by NATO.
Since Friday, the inauguration of the four mayors, elected by a minority of Albanian speakers (1,500 voters out of a population of 40,000) after the Serbian community boycotted the elections, has fuelled the anger of Serbs living in the region. On Monday, they violently attacked the soldiers of KFOR, the name of the NATO force deployed there since the end of the war. Thirty Italian and Hungarian soldiers were injured in the clashes. NATO has sent new troops to the area. On Wednesday, several hundred Kosovo Serbs once again demonstrated, in a much calmer atmosphere, to demand the withdrawal of the Albanian-speaking mayors. "These protests are not against KFOR and NATO," assured Dragisa Milovic, the former Serb mayor of Zvecan, the municipality which has seen the most clashes in recent days.
Refusing to back down
But Albanian-speaking journalists once again reported assaults and attacks on their vehicles. While the violence was clearly perpetrated by Serbs under the influence of a Belgrade government close to Moscow, which still refuses to recognize the independence of its former region, Western powers now attribute the source of the problems to Pristina. "We made it very clear to the Kosovar authorities that it was a mistake to proceed with these elections," said Macron, referring to the municipal polls held on April 23 despite a boycott by the Serbian electorate. Serbian elected representatives and civil servants from the region had left all Kosovar institutions in November to protest against Pristina's decision to stop recognizing Serbian license plates.
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