Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Monday accused Serbia of trying to annex the Serb-dominated northern part of Kosovo and said the recent bloody clashes were part of that plan.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Monday accused Serbia of trying to annex the Serb-dominated northern part of Kosovo and said the recent bloody clashes were part of that plan.
At the end of September, around 30 Serb militants attacked a police patrol and later barricaded themselves in an Orthodox monastery in the village of Banska. A shootout between Serb militants and Kosovo police lasted for several hours and killed three Serb militants and one policeman. It was one of the most serious clashes in recent years between the Kosovo police, which are mostly made up of ethnic Albanians, and members of the Serb minority.
Kurti said that the Kosovo police confiscated documents showing that the terrorist attack on the police in the village of Banska “was part of a wider plan to annex the northern part of Kosovo” by coordinated attacks on dozens of positions in the region.
“After that, a corridor to Serbia would be created to ensure the supply of weapons and troops,” Kurti said on the “X” platform.
Following the clashes, Kosovo authorities arrested several suspects and confiscated weapons, adding that the weapons would be enough to arm a hundred people.
The United States on Friday called on Serbia to withdraw troops stationed on the border with Kosovo. Britain, on the other hand, announced that it would send its soldiers to help NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo.
The commander of the Serbian army, General Milan Mojsilovic, announced today that the number of Serbian soldiers stationed at the Kosovo border has been reduced and is back to normal levels.
A week after the shooting in northern Kosovo, the number of troops was reduced from 8,350 to 4,500, Mojsilovic announced.
After the shooting and subsequent raids, the Kosovo government displayed a large arsenal of weapons and equipment found and accused Belgrade of supporting the incident.
Milan Radoicic, the leader of Kosovo’s largest Serb political party, Serb List, resigned on Friday after admitting he organized the armed group. However, he denied receiving help from Belgrade.
The clash in the village of Banska, which took place on September 24, was another of the many incidents in northern Kosovo since Pristina declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Belgrade and its main allies China and Russia have refused to recognize the move.
Despite years of European Union (EU)-backed talks between the two sides to normalize relations, little progress has been made, and relations between Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority and Serb minority remain strained.
