BRUSSELS (AP) – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) eased tensions with Serbia , a day after the Kosovo government violently seized a city hall in the country’s northern ethnic Serb region to install a mayor.
As a result, after Friday’s clashes between Kosovar police and demonstrators against the Albanian mayor, Serbia has put its troops into full combat readiness and moved troops closer to the border.
Transatlantic Military Alliance spokeswoman Oana Lungescu said in a Twitter post: “We urge Kosovar authorities to immediately de-escalate the situation and call on all parties to resolve the situation through dialogue.”
He said the 3,800-strong NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force KFOR will remain vigilant.
Tensions continued in the north, with heavily armed police in armored vehicles guarding buildings in the area. Kosovo’s Prime Minister Alvin Kurti defended the actions of the police in escorting the new mayor the day before.
“It is the right of democratically elected persons to come to power without intimidation or intimidation. It is also the right of citizens to be served by these elected officials,” said Kurti.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Brinken on Friday criticized the Kurti government’s actions in the north, calling it “unnecessarily escalating tensions and undermining our efforts to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia. It will affect relationships,” he said.
Nearly a decade after the end of the war, Serbs in northern Kosovo have not accepted Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia in 2008 and still consider Belgrade as their capital.
Albanians make up more than 90% of the population in Kosovo, with Serbs making up the majority only in the northern regions.
