Two government offices in Kosovo aimed at a surge in Serbian tensions

Kosovo’s Pristina — A public building in Kosovo ignites, another building said on Saturday as a criminal act related to Serbs protesting the decision to remove the Serbian license from cars entering the country I was attacked by a grenade that did not explode.

Serbian media reported that Sasa Bozovic, head of the Zubin Potok fire department, said a fire that broke out overnight in the town’s town hall involved two offices. Bozovic did not identify the cause of the fire.

The Kosovo Ministry of Interior said the flame had burned down the vehicle registration office. The Serbs, who are angry with the removal of their Serbian license, have closed the Kosovo-Serbian border with trucks since Monday.

“The Zubin Potok Commune’s Vehicle Registration Center was burned by suspects for criminal activity using terrorist elements,” Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla wrote on Facebook.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti said two grenades were thrown into the office but did not explode in Zubekan, a town about 10 miles away.

Culti accused the Serbian government of “inciting and supporting” such actions and “exploiting Kosovo citizens and causing serious international conflict.”

Both commune are located in the north near the Serbian border and are mainly inhabited by Serbs, a minority ethnic group in Kosovo.

Tensions soared on Monday when Kosovo’s special police with armored cars were sent to the border to temporarily replace Serbian license plates from cars driving in Kosovo. This is a trivial annoyance for drivers who have a large symbolic impact.

Serbia does not recognize the former state of Kosovo as a separate country, but only considers the borders of each other as temporary “administrative” boundaries.

For many years, Serbian police have removed the plate from Kosovo-registered vehicles entering Serbia. After that, the driver will have to pay € 5 for a temporary license plate for 60 days.

Kosovo officials say they are just copying the Serbian program.

Serbian President Alexander Vucci described Kosovo’s move as a “criminal procedure” and made the withdrawal of all Kosovo troops a condition of European Union-mediated negotiations to resolve the dispute.

After the grenade and fire incident, the Kosovo government was not ready to immediately pull back the special police on Saturday.

“These criminal acts best show what happened at the Jalinge-Brunak border crossing, unless special (police) forces were dispatched there to ensure public order and morals and security,” Svekra said. Is writing.

The European Union and the United States urged Kosovo and Serbia to exercise detention “immediately and without delay” and refrain from unilateral action.

The 1998-1999 bloody crackdown on Albanian separatists in Kosovo ended after NATO intervention, and Kosovo declared independence in 2008.

Thousands of NATO-led peacekeepers, including the US military, are still deployed in Kosovo, trying to stop the prolonged ethnic tensions between the majority of Kosovo Albanians and Kosovo Serbians.

By Zenel Zhinipotoku and Llazar Semini

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