Following explosions and assaults amid preparations for elections to switch ethnic Serb representatives in establishments within the north of Kosovo, the top of EULEX, Lars-Gunnar Wigemark expressed concern over the state of affairs.
Kosovo police mentioned that masked people broken the workplaces of municipal electoral commissions utilizing, reportedly, Yugoslav-era hand grenades. The police mentioned the incident occurred when police have been escorting electoral fee officers to an electoral occasion.
“All protests should be peaceable and everybody should stay calm and restrained,” mentioned Wigemark on Twitter. He added EULEX would proceed to observe the state of affairs in collaboration with the Kosovo police and KFOR.
Elections are set to be held on 18 December within the Serb-majority municipalities of Zvecan, Leopsavic, Zubin Potok and North Mitrovica after representatives resigned en masse in protest over Prishtina’s plans to ban Yugoslav-era license plates.
The Minister of Inner Affairs of Kosovo, Xhelal Sveçla, mentioned that “organised teams, with some masked people” attacked the election officers and the policemen “with grenades and pictures within the air.”
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, mentioned that there can be a rise within the police presence within the north. In accordance with him, the assaults there are being carried out by “prison gangs,” that are “paid and directed by Serbia.”
However the US Ambassador in Kosovo, Jeffery Hovenier, mentioned that the circumstances for an election to happen haven’t but been created.
“The US is anxious that the circumstances haven’t been created in the intervening time for the elections to be held on the finish of this month within the north of Kosovo,” he tweeted, including that the security of all residents of Kosovo must be a precedence.
The Minister of Protection of Serbia, Milosh Vucevic mentioned the state of affairs could be very tense and the slightest incident may end in an undesirable state of affairs,
“It’s a very tough state of affairs. It’s straightforward for us from Belgrade, Nis and Subotica to say what must be carried out. It isn’t straightforward to elucidate to the Serbian group in Kosovo how necessary it’s to stay calm, to not fall into provocations, and alternatively, to not be humiliated or devalued additional, we should additionally perceive their reactions, they don’t have the identical atmosphere and life as different residents of Serbia,” he mentioned.
Vučevič mentioned that Kurti’s authorities goals to ethnically cleanse the territory of Kosovo from the Serbs, utilizing terror.
(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)
