MITROVICA, Kosovo: Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Thursday (Jun 1) he will not back down from a decision to install ethnic Albanian mayors in Serb majority areas, a move which triggered violence, prompting NATO to send more troops to the region.
“Mayors should go and work in their offices,” Kurti told Kosovo Albanian media. “We need to have normality … What is the meaning of having public buildings for state officials if they are not used?”
Unrest in Kosovo’s north has intensified since ethnic Albanian mayors took office in the region’s Serb-majority area, a move that led the US and its allies to rebuke Pristina. The majority Serb population had boycotted the April election, allowing ethnic Albanians to win the poll.
In violence on Monday, 30 peacekeepers and 52 Serbs who protested against the installation of ethnic-Albanian mayors were injured.
The violence prompted NATO to announce it would send additional troops on top of 700 already on their way to the Balkan country to boost its 4,000-strong mission.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Oslo called on Kosovo and Serbia “to take steps to de-escalate” tension in the north Kosovo region which borders Serbia.
“We support the process of Euro-Atlantic integration for Kosovo and for Serbia, but the current escalation hinders, rather than helps the efforts to move in that direction.”
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