41 KFOR soldiers, including 11 Italians, were injured in the serious clashes between NATO troops and Serbian demonstrators in Zvecan, in northern Kosovo. Of the 11 wounded Italians, three are serious but not life threatening: they would have suffered burns and fractures.
General Ristuccia is personally following the evolution of the situation in Kosovo, where at least eleven Italian soldiers of the mission were injured, expressing his solidarity with the men and women of the mission.
Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia therefore continue: citizens of Serb ethnicity in northern Kosovo clashed with the police in a municipal building, while trying to take over one of the offices in which the mayors of Albanian ethnicity entered last week, supported by the authorities.
The episode of violence was the latest in a series of tensions, which had spiraled over the past week, with Serbia putting the country’s army on high alert and sending more troops to the border with Kosovo.
The Kosovo Police and the Kosovo Force, led by NATO, are intent on protecting the municipal buildings where the recent elections took place.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic has criticized the international handling of events in Kosovo.
“I have no nice words to say about our partners in the European Union and within the Kosovo Force, their reaction was belated.
Their mandate, according to United Nations Security Council resolution 1244, is to protect peace and stability, and above all to protect people: today they do not protect people, they do not protect democracy, they do not protect institutions. they are there to protect the usurpers from democracy and from ordinary people, ordinary citizens, but we must continue to preserve the peace.”
The Serbs say they want the new mayors, whom they have described as “illegal and illegitimate sheriffs”, to resign and leave their posts, and for the Special Police to leave northern Kosovo.
Clashes Also in Pristina
In Pristina, meanwhile, a private car was set on fire. while the ambassadors of the USA, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy met again with the Kosovar premier, Albin Kurti, with the request to prevent the entry of the new mayors of Albanian ethnicity into the municipal offices of Zvecan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic.
This article is originally published on it.euronews.com
