BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared anew over the weekend when some 30 closely armed Serbs barricaded themselves in an Orthodox monastery in northern Kosovo, setting off a daylong gunbattle with police that left one officer and three attackers useless.
Sunday’s conflict was one of many worst since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. It got here because the European Union and the U.S. try to mediate and finalize yearslong talks on normalizing ties between the 2 Balkan states.
There are fears within the West of a revival of the 1998-1999 battle in Kosovo that claimed greater than 10,000 lives and left over 1 million homeless.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti accused Serbia of sending the attackers into Kosovo. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied that, saying the lads had been Kosovo Serbs who’ve had sufficient of “Kurti’s terror.”
A take a look at the historical past between Serbia and Kosovo, and why the most recent tensions are a priority for Europe.
WHY ARE SERBIA AND KOSOVO AT ODDS?
Kosovo is a primarily ethnic Albanian territory that was a part of Serbia earlier than it declared independence. The Serbian authorities has refused to acknowledge Kosovo’s statehood, regardless that it has no formal management there.
Some 100 international locations have acknowledged Kosovo’s independence, together with america and most Western international locations. Russia, China and 5 EU nations have sided with Serbia. The impasse has saved tensions simmering within the Balkan area following the bloody breakup of former Yugoslavia within the Nineties.
WHAT ARE THE ROOTS OF THE CONFLICT?
The dispute over Kosovo is centuries-old. Serbs cherish the realm as central each to their faith and statehood. Quite a few medieval Serb Orthodox Christian monasteries are in Kosovo, and Serb nationalists view a 1389 battle towards Ottoman Turks there as a logo of their nationwide wrestle for independence.
Kosovo’s majority ethnic Albanians, most of whom are Muslim, in the meantime, view Kosovo as their nation and accuse Serbia of occupying it and repressing them for many years.
Ethnic Albanian rebels launched an rebellion in 1998 to rid the nation of Serbian rule. Belgrade’s brutal response prompted a NATO intervention in 1999, forcing Serbia to drag out and cede management to worldwide peacekeepers.
There are nonetheless some 4,500 peacekeepers stationed in Kosovo, a poor nation of about 1.7 million folks with little trade and the place crime and corruption are rampant.
ARE TENSIONS RUNNING PARTICULARLY HIGH NOW?
There are fixed tensions between Kosovo’s authorities and ethnic Serb residents who dwell largely within the north of Kosovo and who preserve shut ties to Belgrade. Mitrovica, the primary metropolis within the north, is successfully divided into an ethnic Albanian half and a Serb-held half, and the 2 sides hardly ever combine. There are additionally smaller Serb-populated enclaves in southern Kosovo.
Authorities makes an attempt to impose extra management within the north are normally met with resistance, and the state of affairs deteriorated earlier this yr, when Serbs boycotted native elections held the north. They then tried to forestall the newly elected ethnic Albanian mayors from getting into their places of work.
Some 30 NATO peacekeepers and greater than 50 Serb protesters had been damage within the ensuing clashes.
IS THERE A LINK TO RUSSIA AND THE WAR IN UKRAINE?
Nicely earlier than Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine final yr, Russian President Vladimir Putin cited the breakup of Yugoslavia to justify a potential invasion of a sovereign European nation.
Putin, whose troops illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, has repeatedly argued that NATO’s bombardment of Serbia in 1999 and the West’s recognition of Kosovo created a precedent. He has claimed that permits Russia to intervene in Ukraine’s strategic Black Sea peninsula and majority Russian areas within the nation’s east.
Western officers have vehemently rejected Putin’s reasoning, saying the NATO intervention in Kosovo was triggered by mass killings and different battle crimes dedicated by Serbian troops towards ethnic Albanians. That was not the case in Ukraine earlier than Russia’s full-scale invasion.
There are fears within the West that Russia, appearing by its ally Serbia, is making an attempt to destabilize the Balkans and thus shift at the very least some consideration from its aggression on Ukraine.
WHAT HAS BEEN DONE TO RESOLVE THE DISPUTE?
There have been fixed worldwide efforts to seek out frequent floor between the 2 former battle foes, however no complete settlement has emerged thus far. European Union and U.S. officers have mediated negotiations designed to normalize relations between Serbia and Kosovo since 2012.
The negotiations have led to leads to some areas, reminiscent of freedom of motion with out checkpoints and establishing multiethnic police forces in Kosovo. Nevertheless, the latter broke down when Serbs pulled out of the power final yr to protest Pristina’s choice to ban Serbian-issued automobile license plates.
After worldwide strain, Kurti, Kosovo’s prime minister, suspended the decree however that didn’t convey Serbs again to the Kosovo establishments.
Including to the issue of discovering an answer, Kosovo and Serbia each have nationalist leaders. Kurti is usually accused by worldwide mediators of creating strikes that set off pointless tensions.
Vucic, in the meantime, is a former ultra-nationalist who insists Serbia won’t ever acknowledge Kosovo and insists that an earlier deal to provide Kosovo Serbs a degree of independence should first be applied earlier than new agreements are made. Vucic has tacitly acknowledged Serbia’s lack of management over Kosovo, but in addition says the nation received’t settle except it positive aspects one thing.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
Worldwide officers nonetheless hope Kosovo and Serbia can attain a deal that will enable Kosovo to get a seat within the United Nations with out Serbia having to explicitly acknowledge its statehood. Each nations should normalize ties in the event that they wish to advance towards EU membership.
No breakthrough within the EU-mediated negotiations would imply extended instability, financial decline and the fixed potential for clashes. Any Serbian army intervention in Kosovo would imply a conflict with NATO peacekeepers there, and Serbia is unlikely to maneuver in, except it positive aspects some form of Russian backing.
