PRISTINA, Sept 25 — The storming of a north Kosovo monastery has thrown attention on persistent trouble in the ethnic Serbian-majority region 15 years after Pristina declared...
PRISTINA, Sept 25 — The storming of a north Kosovo monastery has thrown attention on persistent trouble in the ethnic Serbian-majority region 15 years after Pristina declared independence.Independence for ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo came on February 17, 2008, almost a decade after a guerrilla uprising against repressive Serbian rule.Serbia, however, still formally deems Kosovo to be part of its territory.
Last December, North Kosovo Serbs erected multiple roadblocks and exchanged fire with police after a former Serb policeman was arrested for allegedly assaulting serving police officers during a previous protest. Ethnic Serb mayors in northern municipalities, along with local judges and 600 police officers, resigned in November last year in protest at the looming switch, deepening dysfunction and lawlessness in the region.Serbs in Kosovo seek to create an association of majority-Serb municipalities operating with considerable autonomy.
The alliance says it would intervene in line with its mandate if Kosovo were at risk of renewed conflict. The EU’s Eulex mission, begun in 2008 to train domestic police and crack down on graft and gangsterism, retains 200 special police officers in Kosovo.US and EU envoys are pressing Serbia and Kosovo to approve a plan presented in mid-2022 under which Belgrade would stop lobbying against a Kosovo seat in international organisations including the United Nations.
Kurti, who had agreed such an association should have only limited powers whose decisions could be overruled by central government, accused the EU mediator of siding with Serbia to pressure him to implement only one part of the deal.