Global Courant 2023-05-29 11:26:33
Groups of Serbian citizens clashed on Friday with the Kosovo police who were to help the new mayors of the three municipalities inhabited by Serbian majorities enter their offices. The situation seems calm on Sunday in the north of the country, while police forces are staying near the buildings of the Zveqan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic municipalities. Friday’s developments prompted sharp reactions from official Belgrade and Western diplomacy.
Connoisseurs of political developments in Kosovo estimate that successive crises in the north damage the process of normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
“As if both sides are afraid to find a solution, they are afraid of a final solution which may be a little painful but it will be a final solution, and instead they want to delay the solution and create situation and cause unnecessary tensions and frustration among citizens”, analyst Rrahman Paçarizi told Voice of America.
“What is happening currently damages the relations of the authorities with the local population. Instead of insisting on political dialogue, now heavy police forces have been sent to the northern municipalities, and there was a response from local residents who stood in front of the police and demanded certain answers which should actually be given by politicians and not from the police”, said the analyst from North Mitrovica, Miodrag Milicevic.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday ordered Serbian troops to be put on “high alert” and move toward the border with Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008.
Miodrag Milicevic from the non-governmental organization in the north of Mitrovica, AKTIV, said in a conversation with the Voice of America that the solution to de-escalate this situation should be found in political dialogue.
“In line with this, the withdrawal of special police units, I must emphasize this, the special units must return to their bases and be replaced by regular police forces. This would immediately contribute to mitigating the current crisis, which unfortunately has the risk of escalating,” he said.
Western diplomacy, including the United States, condemned the actions of the Kosovo government to forcibly enter municipal buildings in the north.
The expert on political issues, Rrahman Paçarizi told the Voice of America that the international reaction is a disaster that has happened to Kosovo due to political recklessness. He said that Kosovo should not declaratively damage relations with the United States, because it weakens its position in the dialogue and in the international plan as a whole.
“I do not agree with those young patriots who think that Kosovo should behave as a sovereign state that does not need anything to ask the United States, or I am not with those who say that Kosovo should finally move with his own feet. There is almost no state in the world that is completely sovereign, all states have their functioning and sovereignty interconnected with other allies. At the end of the day, this is how the world works with constellations, if it weren’t for these constellations, Kosovo would not be independent”, said Mr. Paçarizi.
The new mayors of the three municipalities inhabited by Serbian majority, who emerged from the April 23 elections, are opposed by the Serbs and their political representatives, who boycotted this election process.
Leaders of the Serbian List, the main political entity of the Kosovo Serbs, demanded on Saturday that Serbia suspend all negotiations with the Kosovo government.
The United States and the European Union have stepped up efforts to help resolve the Kosovo-Serbia dispute, fearing further instability in Europe as the war in Ukraine continues.
Kosovo and Serbia agreed in March in Ohrid to implement a European Union plan for the normalization of relations between them, but tensions continue to remain high. /VOA
