Serbs resign from Kosovo police as president condemns pressure from Belgrade

Seven ethnic Serbs have resigned from their positions in the Kosovo police in the last few days, prompting President Vjosa Osmani to denounce the influence of Belgrade, which she said is behind the action.

The police officers resigned over the weekend, and more are expected in the coming days, according to local experts and analysts.

“There is already confirmed information, according to the investigations of our institutions during these weeks, that the endangerments of these members, intimidation, blackmail, comes directly from Belgrade,” Osmani said.

She asked the European Union to take action against Serbian President Aleksander Vucic as it violates the Brussels Agreement. The president added that international officials know the pressure to resign comes from within Serbia.

At the end of 2022, Kosovo Serb police, politicians and local officials resigned en masse from their positions over Pristina’s plan to enforce a rule that only Kosovo-issued license plates can be used by residents and citizens in the country. This would impact some Serbs in the north who continue to use Belgrade-issued plates despite Kosovo’s independence being declared in 2008.

This led to the announcement of an election to replace the Serb local government officials and mayors in the north of the country, a region mainly inhabited by ethnic Serbs. But Serbs did not run for positions and abandoned the vote at the behest of Belgrade.

Kurti: Low turnout in north Kosovo vote due to Belgrade blackmail

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti attributed the turnout of just 3.47% in the north Kosovo local elections to what he called an atmosphere of intimidation and blackmail coming from Belgrade.

Some 45,000 Kosovo citizens were eligible to vote in the elections …

The result was a 3.4% turnout and the election of ethnic Albanian mayors into the positions. Although some mayors appointed Serb staff and deputies, when they tried to enter their offices to start work, Serbs protested, and the situation escalated to the point that NATO peacekeeping troops were seriously injured along with journalists, police and citizens.

The situation has led to a standoff between Pristina and Belgrade, as the former is reluctant to withdraw special police units from the north until the situation is secure, while the latter says the situation will not calm until the units are removed.

Kosovo has committed to holding new elections but insists that Serbs must participate.

Early elections in north Kosovo next step, EU says

New early local elections in northern Kosovo are the next step to defuse the simmering crisis between Belgrade and Pristina, EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell said on Monday (26 June) as the EU welcomed the release of three kidnapped Kosovan policemen.

Interventions from the EU and the US to de-escalate the situation have been mainly focused on actions Kosovo should take, leading to disappointment and criticism from local stakeholders.

Kosovo has since been slapped with sanctions by the EU, which have seen the suspension and withdrawal of funding and exclusion from various regional initiatives.

Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti have previously condemned Belgrade’s interference in Kosovo’s national affairs. This includes pressure on Serbs to resign, not take part in elections or vote, and ongoing lobbying against Kosovo’s recognition with other countries and in international organisations, all of which violate the 2023 Brussels Agreement.

EU’s Lajcak criticised during European Parliament hearing on Kosovo

German MEP Michael Gahler and Austrian MEP Thomas Waltz criticised the EU’s envoy for the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, Miroslav Lajčák, during Wednesday’s meeting of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee (AFET), citing a failure in progress and the bloc’s one-sided approach …

Serbia is yet to react to the latest allegations of interference, but in November 2022, following the resignation of Serb local officials in Kosovo, President Aleksander Vucic said they were “senseless” and reassured Kosovo Serbs that Belgrade would “take care of them”.

“It’s not easy [to leave], but no one wanted to stay without being with their people, people feel it at every step,” he added.

Over the summer, calls for the EU and the US to reassess their stance on Kosovo and Serbia have come thick and fast. British MP and Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee called out the EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell’s spokesperson Peter Stano for his statement in early August.

“In the light of the recent escalations is to introduce certain measures against the government of Kosovo because of their inability to start behaving in a European way,” Stano said over the summer. “Serbia is not doing anything to escalate, so our approach is balanced”, he added.

Kosovo could face imminent Western sanctions

Kosovo could soon face sanctions from the Euro-Atlantic community, multiple high-level and diplomatic sources told EURACTIV, while Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama cancelled his planned meeting with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on Wednesday, citing the pending measures as one …

Kearns reacted by calling his comments “gross misrepresentation” and providing a list of recent actions taken by Serbia. These include locking journalists in a room to stop them from asking questions to Prime Minister Ana Brnabic during an EU event with EU representatives, sending a government delegation to Tehran, buying 20,000 kamikaze drones from Iran, signing security agreements with Russia seven months after the illegal invasion of Ukraine. Kearns also pointed to Serbia interfering in Kosovo elections, visiting Moscow after the invasion, ‘kidnapping’ three Kosovar police officers, refusing to align with EU foreign policy on Russia, and the Head of Intelligence, Aleksander Vuiln, being sanctioned by the US government.

Meanwhile, Kosovo has aligned with EU and US policy on Russia, including sanctions and security and has improved in international rankings of media freedom, democracy, corruption, freedoms and human rights, positioning it as a leader in the region. Its population is also the most pro-EU among EU-aspiring Western Balkan countries, at over 85%, while in Serbia, it is less than 50%.

(Alice Taylor | Exit.al)