NATO Reinforcements Arrive in Kosovo After Clashes

NATO reinforcements began arriving in Kosovo on Monday after clashes with ethnic Serb protesters that wounded 30 of its peacekeepers, the Western military alliance said.

NATO announced last week it was sending in some 700 more troops after violence erupted following disputed local elections in northern Kosovo.

Around 500 Turkish soldiers make up the bulk of the reinforcements and they will be “deployed in Kosovo for as long as necessary, NATO said in a statement.

An extra multinational battalion of reserve forces has also been put on notice to be ready to reinforce the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping mission if necessary.

Protests flared among Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority in April after the authorities installed ethnic Albanian mayors following widely-boycotted local elections in northern areas.

Last Monday, 30 peacekeepers were injured in clashes with demonstrators throwing rocks, bottles and Molotov cocktails.

Ethnic Serbs have demanded the withdrawal of Kosovo special police forces as well as the ethnic Albanian mayors they do not consider as their true representatives.

Serbs, who make up around six percent of Kosovo’s majority-ethnic Albanian population, have remained largely loyal to Belgrade, especially in the north of Kosovo where they make up a majority.

Authorities in Kosovo and Serbia have faced international pressure to defuse the tensions.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. But Belgrade and its allies China and Russia do not recognise the move.

NATO has been heading the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo since its military intervention in 1999.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)