By Fatos Bytyci
PRISTINA (Reuters) – Persistent ethnic pressure in north Kosovo may set off a repeat of violence seen within the space final yr, when 4 folks died in a gun battle and NATO peacekeepers have been damage in clashes, a senior official from the navy alliance warned on Saturday.
Kosovo is predominantly ethnic Albanian however about 50,000 Serbs within the north reject Pristina’s authorities and see Belgrade as their capital. A former Serbian province, Kosovo declared independence in 2008 a decade after a guerrilla rebellion.
U.S. Navy Admiral Stuart B. Munsch, commander of the Allied Joint Pressure Command Naples – which oversees NATO’s peacekeeping in drive in Kosovo – mentioned the alliance remained involved in regards to the threat of repeated violence within the unstable north.
“Heated political rhetoric could inspire some non-government forces to commit violence such as what happened last year,” Munsch informed reporters in Pristina.
“I would not say that definitely conflict is coming, I think there is a persistent risk,” he mentioned, referring to an absence of progress in EU-mediated talks between Kosovo’s authorities and Serbia.
A police officer and three gunmen have been killed in September 2023 when a gaggle of closely armed attackers entered from Serbia and attacked police within the village of Banjska.
4 months earlier, greater than 90 troopers have been injured when Serb protesters attacked NATO peacekeepers.
Kosovo has accused Serbia of being behind the Banjska assault however Belgrade has denied the accusations.
The U.S. and the European Union, Kosovo’s main international allies, have criticised the Pristina authorities for taking unilateral actions within the north that might spark ethnic violence and threat the lives of some 4,000 NATO troops on responsibility there.
Kosovo rejects such criticism, and the problem has strained Pristina’s ties with its Western supporters.
As a part of the EU-mediated dialogue, Kosovo and Serbia have been holding talks for greater than a decade to normalise their relations, however there was little progress.
Just like the Serbs residing in north Kosovo, Belgrade additionally considers Kosovo to be a part of Serbia and refuses to recognise it as a state.
