Kosovo Urges NATO Intervention As Serbia Border Tensions Explode, Gunfire Exchanged

Kosovo is urging NATO intervention after weekend border tensions with Serbia have exploded into clashes, resulting in rare exchanges of gunfire at the border. Serbians starting days ago began setting up barricades on main roads along the Kosovo-Serbia border, creating gridlock and chaos in the northern Kosovo region. 

For months there have been on-and-off clashes between Kosovar police and what Kosovo’s prime minister Albin Kurti has called “criminal gangs” of Serb nationals who are seeking to restrict “freedom of movement”. Central to the conflict is Kosovo’s enforcement of a hugely controversial law banning Serbian license plates on vehicles. 

BBC reports tensions have exploded into armed conflict between police and Serbian groups: “Kosovo police said they had come under fire in different locations close to a lake bordering Serbia late on Saturday, with officers returning fire in self-defense,” according to the report.

“Kosovo deployed police to majority-Serb areas – which do not recognize the Kosovo government in the capital Pristina – at the end of last week,” BBC continues. 

The catalyst for this latest flare-up in border tensions was the arrest of a popular former Serb policeman Dejan Pantic by Kosovo. Amid some of the weekend mayhem, a stun grenade was thrown at a EULEX car (which stands for the European Union mission in Kosovo) but didn’t result in injuries. 

Kosovo has accused the Serbian ex-police officer who is now in detention is “of committing terrorist acts and attacking the constitutional order.”

Serbia reportedly increases its military presence along its border with Kosovo, as Serbian protesters blocked roads in northern Kosovo for a second day pic.twitter.com/ItB635lKNb

— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) December 12, 2022

During a Sunday press conference Kosovo PM Kurti asked the Kosovo Force (KFOR), a NATO-led international peacekeeping force, to intervene by sending peacekeeping troops to quell the violence. About 6% of Kosovo’s population of 1.8 million is Serbian.

BBC points out in reference to the 4,000 multinational troops that make up the KFOR presence for the last two decades since the end of the major Yugoslav Wars:”The authorities in Belgrade rely on KFOR to guarantee the safety of Kosovo-Serbs. They fear a repeat of the violence in 2004 which resulted in the deaths of more than a dozen Serbs, hundreds more injuries and the displacement of thousands of Serb families.”

DEVELOPING: Reports in the last couple hours that fighting has broken out at the Kosovo’s northern border with Serbia.

Thread on videos circulating allegedly showing Serbian army movement today. pic.twitter.com/DnWuO301Jc

— Moshe Schwartz (@YWNReporter) December 11, 2022

The peacekeeping force presence has also long prevented the Serbian Army from any offensive measures inside Kosovo, which controversially was recognized as a country under the George W. Bush administration. 

Meanwhile, European diplomats are scrambling for a peaceful resolution to the crisis, given the persistent risk that border clashes could spiral into major conflict. 

“I know that two parties are willing to deescalate and I am strongly calling to the two of them to do it, but in this case I am in touch with [Kosovo's] Prime Minister [Albin] Kurti, Miroslav Lajcak is in touch with President [Aleskandar] Vucic in Serbia,” Borrell said at the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels.

The EU foreign policy chief further urged Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kosovo PM Kurti to urgently pursue dialogue over escalation.

Kosovo* authorities continue to show force and violently discriminate the already shaken Kosovo* Serb community almost on a daily basis now, much to the detriment of EU/US-led efforts to preserve stability and create an atmosphere conducive to normalization.
Tonight, we are..
1/6 pic.twitter.com/s6fFvAPudB

— Марко Ђурић (@markodjuric) December 8, 2022

During a Serbian national security council convened under Vucic on Sunday, he said he would mull a request for national forces to be sent to Kosovo to protect the Serb minority. While unlikely, such a confrontation would likely spark war.

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Below: Map, Serbia has for centuries going back to medieval times considered Kosovo to be its national and spiritual heartland…