Polish and US peacekeepers exchanged fire with attackers in northern Kosovo late on Wednesday and fired tear gas to disperse a mob of Serbs attacking an outpost at Kosovo’s border post with Serbia, a NATO official said.
The violence erupted hours after Kosovo’s special police ended an operation to take control of two borders posts that left one policeman dead.
A mob of about 200 Serbs hurled firebombs and set a customs post ablaze soon after Kosovo police withdrew.
Photo: Reuters
NATO responded by sending hundreds of troops in an attempt to quell the violence and came under fire as it did so, NATO spokesman Captain Hans Wichter said. No injuries were reported.
“The gate is now clear,” Wichter said, but added there was a risk of further attacks on the border post as about 100 demonstrators were close to the checkpoint.
Additional French and US troops were sent to a second post bordering Serbia, also under threat of attack. The violence is a setback for NATO-led efforts to broker a deal that would leave Kosovo officials in charge of the border crossings after special police units and local Serbs remove roadblocks.
NATO’s Kosovo commander Major General Erhard Buehler is still talking to both sides in search of a solution, Wichter said.
Video shown on Serbia’s state-run RTS television showed masked men demolishing the border post as EU police leapt into cars and evacuated the area. The mobs attacked a crew from the official Serbian Tanjug news agency, seriously injuring one of two cameramen and slightly injuring another.
The attacks follow days of mounting tension between ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs after Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci ordered special police units to take over two disputed border posts previously manned by Serb members of the police under EU supervision.
Thaci blamed the attack on Serbia’s top leaders, saying they want to partition Kosovo along ethnic lines.
“There will be no turning back and Serbia’s plan for the division of Kosovo’s north will never happen,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday, Kosovar authorities declared the operation over and said special police units withdrew from the area.
EU Kosovo police mission spokesman Nicholas Hawton condemned the attack and appealed for people to remain calm, while Serbian President Boris Tadic also urged an “immediate end” to violence in the north of Kosovo, a statement from his office said.
“[The] hooligans who cause violence are not defending Serbia or the Serbian citizens,” Tadic said.
He also called on Kosovar Serbs to remain calm.
The EU has condemned the police action that led to the rise in tensions in Kosovo.
Crowds of Serbs staged a similar attack on the same border posts in 2008 in reaction to Kosovo’s declaration of independence.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was