Tensions rise in Kosovo after arrest of Serbian ex-policeman

Tensions rose in northern Kosovo over the weekend as local Serbs erected roadblocks on the highways in northern Kosovo in response to the detention of a Serb former police officer by Pristina authorities.

Dejan Pantic, who resigned in November along with other Serbian officers from the republic’s interior ministry, was arrested on Saturday when he tried to enter central Serbia. Kosovo’s law enforcement officers detained him on suspicion of terrorism. 

Arrests led to road blocks and last night Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic met with his national security council to discuss the volatile situation. According to local media reports, protesters gathered mainly near the village of Leposavic. They set up tents to keep watch on the barricades. Air raid sirens sounded in the northern part of the city of Kosovska Mitrovica. 

Kosovo’s prime minister called for the NATO forces present in the area to step in to avoid further escalation.  

“We call once again to KFOR, NATO’s peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, to guarantee the freedom of movement and remove the roadblocks. KFOR is there to create a calm and safe environment which also means to have freedom of movement. The blocking of public roads with heavy machinery by criminal gangs that shoot at our police and EU police is unacceptable and should not be repeated again in the future,” said Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti. 

Kosovo police have blocked the entry from central Serbia to the north of the region. Neither cars nor pedestrians are allowed through the checkpoint. 

Overnight on Sunday, unknown attackers exchanged gunfire with police on one of the roads leading up to the barricades. Hundreds of ethnic Serbs gathered again early in the morning at the roadblocks they erected and which have paralyzed traffic through two border crossings from Kosovo to Serbia.

"The police units, in self-defense, were forced to respond with firearms to the criminal persons and groups, who were repelled and left in an unknown direction," police said in a statement.

European Union police deployed in the region as part of the rule of law mission (EULEX) said they were also targeted with a stun grenade, but no officers were wounded.

"This attack, as well as the attacks on Kosovo Police officers, are unacceptable," EULEX said in a press release.

EU chief diplomat Josep Borrell condemned the attacks and called on Kosovo Serbs to "immediately" remove the barricades. NATO, which has deployed a 4,000-strong peacekeeping mission in Kosovo under a UN Security Council mandate, blasted the "unacceptable" attacks.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that Belgrade would seek to deescalate the situation, but supported the protests and road blocks.

“It does not disturb the Albanians, not one Albanian lives there, no Albanians even use those roads, only Serbs do. That is a protest against lawlessness, against illegal arrests, it is a protest against daily maltreatment of the Serbian population there," he stated.