Serbs protesting in Mitrovica, an ethnically divided city in northern Kosovo, hours after Serbia announced it had put its forces on maximum combat alert after weeks of heightened tensions between Belgrade and Pristina. , erected new barricades on Tuesday.
Serbia’s Ministry of Defense said in light of the latest events in the region and Belgrade’s belief that Kosovo was preparing to attack the Serbs and force the removal of barricades, Serbian President Alexander Vucic It said it had ordered its military and police to be on maximum alert.
The Kosovar government has called on NATO peacekeepers to remove the barricades, but said it was capable and ready to act.
Kosovo and Serbia will join the European Union and as part of their accession process have agreed to settle outstanding issues and build good neighborly relations.
Here are some facts about standoffs.
Kosovo won its independence from Serbia in 2008, almost a decade after a guerrilla uprising against Belgrade’s repressive rule.
However, Serbia still considers Kosovo an integral part of its territory and has rejected suggestions that it is causing tension and conflict within its borders with its neighbor. accused of trampling on human rights.
Serbs, who do not recognize the Pristina government or Kosovo’s state institutions, make up 5% of Kosovo’s 1.8 million population, while Albanians make up about 90%. Serbs vent their animosity, for example, by refusing to pay Kosovar power companies for electricity they use and by frequently attacking police when they try to arrest them.
On December 10, Serbs erected multiple roadblocks and arrested a former Serb police officer on suspicion of assaulting a police officer at a previous protest, and the new ethnic group has since engaged in a shootout with police. Tensions are rising between
The confrontation comes after months of trouble over a car license plate issue. For years, Kosovo has wanted the approximately 50,000 Serbs in the north to replace their Serbian vehicle license plates with those issued by Pristina. This is part of the government’s desire to claim authority over Kosovo’s territory.
On 31 July Pristina announced a two-month window to switch plates, sparking protests, but then agreed to postpone the implementation date to next year.
A Serbian mayor of a northern municipality resigned in November, along with a local judge and about 600 police officers, in protest at the imminent switch.
Kosovar Serbs want to create a federation of municipalities with a Serb majority. Serbia and Kosovo have made little progress on this and other issues since committing to her EU-sponsored dialogue in 2013.
NATO has about 3,700 troops stationed in Kosovo to keep the peace. The alliance said it would intervene in line with its mandate if stability in the region was threatened.The European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX) in Kosovo, which arrived in 2008, still has about 200 special police officers. There is
