Nato troops guard town hall

NATO peacekeepers stood behind a razor-wire barrier that prevented the approach of protesters outside a municipal hall in ethnically divided northern Kosovo, where days of unrest have prompted Nato to send additional troops to stave off violence.

Following clashes yesterday in Zvecan, another northern town, during which 30 Nato troops and 52 ethnic Serbian protesters were hurt, Nato said it would send 700 more troops to Kosovo to boost its 4 000-strong mission. It was not clear when the soldiers would arrive.

Polish soldiers of Nato stood guard at the town hall in Zvecan yesterday, as demonstrators on the other side of the fence unfurled a large Serbian flag to applause and whistles.

Regional unrest has intensified following April elections that the ethnic Serbs boycotted, narrowing the turnout to 3.5% and leaving victory in four Serb-majority Kosovan mayoralties to ethnic Albanian candidates.

Those ethnic Albanian mayors were then installed last week, a decision that spurred rebuke of Pristina by the US and its allies on Friday.

The ethnic Albanian mayor of Leposavic, another northern Kosovo town, remained in the municipal building yesterday after entering it amid Serb demonstrations on Monday. He couldn’t be reached for comment.

“While they may have been legally elected, we do not consider their election legitimate,” Dragan, an ethnic Serb who lives in Leposavic said yesterday. “We’re asking what the international

community is asking – for them to be removed from here peacefully,” he said. The US and allies have rebuked Kosovo for escalating tensions with Serbia, saying the use of force to install mayors in ethnic Serb areas of Kosovo undermined efforts to improve troubled bilateral relations.

That view was echoed by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said yesterday the unrest “has increased sharply since ethnic Albanian mayors took office”.

Speaking at a briefing in Bratislava, Macron said he hoped to meet German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the leaders of Kosovo and Serbia later this week for discussions on the matter.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti

yesterday blamed Belgrade for being behind protests in the north in order to destabilise Kosovo.

Separately, Kosovo Olympic authorities asked the International Olympic Committee to open disciplinary proceedings against Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, accusing the Serbian of stirring up political tension with remarks he made at the French Open.

Djokovic wrote “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia” on a camera lens on Monday, the day Nato troops and Serbians were hurt in clashes in Zvecan, where his father grew up.

Kosovo tennis federation chief Jeton Hadergjonaj said despite a general message against violence, Djokovic’s remark on Kosovo being the

“heart of Serbia” could ramp up tensions between Serbia and Kosovo.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic placed his army on full combat alert and ordered units to move closer to the border. Northern Kosovo’s majority Serbs have never accepted Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence from Serbia, and consider Belgrade their capital more than two decades after the Kosovo Albanian uprising against repressive Serbian rule.

Ethnic Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in Kosovo as a whole, but northern Serbs have long demanded the implementation of an EU-brokered 2013 deal for the creation of an association of autonomous municipalities in their area.