PRISTINA: Nearly a week after deadly clashes in Kosovo triggered one of the gravest escalations in the former breakaway province in years, the opportunity for reconciliation between ethnic Albanians and Serbs seemed as distant as ever.
The killing of a Kosovo police officer and an ensuing gun battle at a monastery brought years of distrust and bitterness to the surface — as a war of words between Serbia and Pristina’s governments, competing days of mourning, and calls for sanctions marred already fractious relations.
The United States on Friday warned of “a large Serbian military deployment along the border with Kosovo” and called on “Serbia to withdraw those forces from the border”.
On Saturday, in the southern Serbian town of Raska near the border with Kosovo, no particular movement or increased presence of Serbian armed forces were visible, according to a journalist. Last Sunday, three Serb gunmen were killed in an hours-long shootout with Kosovo police, after they ambushed a patrol and later barricaded themselves at an Orthodox monastery near the northern border with Serbia.
In the wake of the clashes, Kosovo police have rounded up suspects, remanded three alleged gunmen in custody, and seized an arsenal of weapons that authorities said could have armed hundreds.
On Friday morning, Kosovo police fanned out again across the north as they conducted an operation that saw the special units raid properties linked to the suspected mastermind of the attack on the police.
The move triggered immediate condemnation from Belgrade, with Serbia’s Office for Kosovo calling the operation a “brutal and excessive demonstration of force” with special police units “armed to the teeth”. Nato meanwhile said it was ready to increase its peacekeeping force in Kosovo.
‘A normal life’
In the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica in the north, Serb residents said they feared an increased presence of Kosovo police and ensuing crackdowns in the already restive community. “I’m afraid of repression, which we’ve had before. A policeman was killed and that’s terrible... now I can only imagine what will happen next,” said a 38-year-old Serb resident.
“I just want a normal life and that’s not a normal life. I think that after this the whole community will be characterised as if everyone has something to do with that event.” Further south in the capital Pristina, the mostly ethnic Albanian residents by and large pinned the blame for the weekend’s violence on the Serbian government, saying peace would only be possible after amends were made.
“Serbia is to blame for what happened,” Mevluda Hoxha, a 64-year-old living in Pristina, said. “Reconciliation with the Serbs in the north is possible — why not live together, but they won’t.” Sunday’s clashes came more than a week after the latest round of talks European Union-sponsored negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia leaders ended in failure.
Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2023
