Serb protesters in northern Kosovo have blocked main roads for the second day in a row after an overnight exchange of fire with police following the arrest of a former Serb policeman, amid rising tensions between the minority Serbs and the authorities. .
In recent weeks, Serbs in northern Kosovo, a hotbed of Serb nationalism, have met Kosovar police, whom they view as anti-Serb, with violent resistance.
The EULEX European mission in Kosovo has described as "unacceptable" the attack against one of its reconnaissance patrols in the north of the Balkan country, which ultimately resulted in no injuries.
"We strongly condemn the violent acts perpetrated by armed persons in the north of Kosovo, including against the international community", they have pointed out from EULEX before asking those responsible to "refrain from carrying out more acts of provocation and we urge the institutions of Kosovo to bring the perpetrators to justice", concludes the European mission that supports, with hundreds of experts, the creation of a rule of law in Kosovo.
The high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, has also spoken, who has today asked the Kosovar Serbs to "immediately" remove the barricades. The head of European diplomacy called for the tension to be reduced, after groups of Kosovar Serbs yesterday blocked the roads in the municipalities of Zvecan and Leposavic with numerous vehicles to prevent the Kosovar police from transferring a former Kosovar Serb policeman suspected of organizing terrorist acts .
The president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, announced yesterday the postponement of the elections in northern Kosovo scheduled for December 18 until April 2023, as a result of the outbreak of these new tensions.
"The barricades of masked criminals in the north must be withdrawn immediately," Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti warned in a statement, adding that his government was in contact with the NATO peacekeeping mission that has more than 3,000 troops on the ground.
Serb mayors of northern Kosovo municipalities, along with local judges and some 600 police officers, resigned last month in protest of the government's decision to replace Belgrade-issued license plates with Pristina-issued ones.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said his country would ask NATO's KFOR peacekeeping mission to allow Serbia to deploy troops and police to Kosovo, though he acknowledged there was no chance permission would be granted.
"We are not seeking conflict, but dialogue and peace. But let me be clear: the Republic of Kosovo will defend itself, forcefully and decisively," Kurti argued in response to Vucic's comments.
Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia - which does not recognize the unilateral independence that its former province declared in 2008 - have risen in recent months to levels not seen for years.
