A Kosovo policeman was killed and another seriously injured in an overnight shooting in a tense border area that Prime Minister Albin Kurti blamed on neighboring Serbia.
(Bloomberg) — A Kosovo policeman was killed and another seriously injured in an overnight shooting in a tense border area that Prime Minister Albin Kurti blamed on neighboring Serbia.
“We condemn this criminal and terrorist attack,” Kurti said on his Facebook page. Unidentified, masked gunmen opened fire on police “with political, financial and logical support from official Belgrade,” he wrote. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the “hideous” attack.
“All facts about the attack need to be established,” Borrell said in a statement. “The responsible perpetrators must face justice.”
Serbia’s Parliament Speaker Vladimir Orlic rejected Kurti’s allegations, saying he was looking for an excuse to intensify a crackdown on remaining Serbs in Kosovo. Kurti “wants an open escalation and that’s why he wanted to cause some violence,” Tanjug newswire reported, citing Orlic.
The shooting was the worst escalation of violence in months in the area where the local Serb majority defy the authority of Kosovo’s predominantly ethnic Albanian authorities.
About 30 perpetrators and several bulletproof vehicles are still on the scene and surrounded by Kosovo police, Kurti told reporters in Pristina at noon, showing photographs of masked men and vehicles near the local Serbian Orthodox monastery. He called on them to surrender.
“These are not armed civilians or a mob, these are professionally trained forces,” Kurti said. “This is not a battle with civilians, but with people equipped with heavy weapons, presenting a threat not only to the constitutional order of Kosovo but to safety of all citizens.”
Gunshots and machine gun fire could still be heard in late morning hours in Kosovo, according to the Pristina-based Koha newspaper. Vehicles belonging to NATO and EULEX, the European Union rule of law mission in Kosovo, also arrived on the scene.
Kosovo, which unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, has been engaged in EU-brokered talks with its northern neighbor for years, with little visible progress. Both Balkan nations need to mend ties to qualify for membership in the bloc.
Read more: EU’s Borrell Raps Kosovo and Serbia for Failing to Ease Tensions
Tensions and recurring violence between Serbs and Kosovo Albanians have threatened to destabilize the region. The latest top-level meeting in Brussels between the leaders of the wartime foes failed to bring the two sides closer to a solution.
(Updates with Kosovo premier comments, other details, from fourth paragraph.)
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