at the root of the crisis

A man carries a Serbian flag in front of KFOR soldiers in Zvecan, northern Kosovo, on May 31, 2023. STRINGER / AFP

Tensions remained high Wednesday, May 31 in northern Kosovo, after thirty soldiers of KFOR, the NATO intervention force, were injured Monday in clashes with members of the Serbian community. The town hall of Zvecan, heavily protected by KFOR soldiers, was thus surrounded by hundreds of protesters opposed to the central power of Pristina, who are standing up against the election of mayors of the Albanian community.

The current clashes are certainly the most violent for several years, but are only the latest episode in a persistent crisis since the 1999 war and Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008. Our explanations.

What is Kosovo and what is its status?

Kosovo is a small, poor Balkan state bordering Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia. It has nearly 1.8 million inhabitants according to the Kosovo Statistics Agency. Most are Albanian speakers, the Serbian community of 120,000 people being present mainly in the north of the country.

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At the end of the 1990s, the guerrillas of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), which fought against Belgrade’s tutelage over this former Yugoslav province, provoked violent repression by Serbian soldiers, leading to the 1999 war. , finally stopped by NATO intervention. Kosovo proclaimed its independence in 2008. Immediately rejected by Serbia, which claimed the territory, it was recognized by a hundred countries.

How are the current tensions explained?

At the end of the war, while Western forces gradually occupied Kosovo as soldiers from Belgrade withdrew, a large Serbian community remained in four towns in the north, between the Ibar River and the border with Serbia. This region lives on Belgrade time. The violence of the last few days is the culmination of tensions born several months ago, when the Kosovar central government stopped recognizing the Serbian license plates used in the North.

In response, mayors and law enforcement officials in the region resigned, prompting Pristina to hold elections. Boycotted by the Serbs, the elections of April 23, in which only 1,500 Albanian speakers took part, logically led to the election of members of this community, without giving them the slightest legitimacy in the eyes of the Serbs. The violence erupted on Friday May 26 when elected mayors sought to take possession of their offices.

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