Dozens of people, including soldiers from the NATO-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (KFOR), have been injured in riots in Kosovo. According to information from Rome and Budapest, more than 30 Italian and Hungarian KFOR soldiers suffered injuries, some of them seriously, when they confronted Serbian demonstrators who wanted to storm the city administration in Zvecan in northern Kosovo on Monday. In addition to NATO, Rome and Berlin also condemned the riots and called on all sides to exercise restraint.
"Several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingents were attacked for no reason and suffered injuries with broken bones and burns as a result of the explosion of incendiary bombs," KFOR said on Monday evening. She condemned the attacks on her troops as "completely unacceptable". KFOR commander Angelo Michele Ristuccia said his force would "continue to fulfill its mandate impartially."
The Hungarian Defense Ministry said more than 20 Hungarian KFOR soldiers were injured, seven of them seriously. According to Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, a total of eleven Italian KFOR soldiers were injured, three of them seriously. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni declared that further attacks against KFOR would "not be tolerated". The Foreign Office in Berlin called for an "immediate stop" to the violence.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said 52 Serbs had been injured, three of them seriously. A 50-year-old was "injured by two shots fired by (ethnic) Albanian special forces," he said on the online network Facebook.
The Serbian demonstrators had tried to enter the building of the city administration in Zvecan. The Kosovo police then used tear gas. KFOR soldiers intervened and positioned themselves between the police and the demonstrators with shields and sticks. As an AFP reporter observed, the soldiers were then attacked by several demonstrators with stones, bottles and incendiary devices.
The demonstrators are demanding the withdrawal of Kosovo's security forces from the region. They are also demanding the removal of mayors belonging to the ethnic Albanian population in the region, which is inhabited by a majority of ethnic Serbs.
In April, the Kosovar authorities held local elections in four Serb-majority towns. However, the Serbs largely boycotted the elections, so the Albanian minority took control of the local councils despite an overall turnout of less than 3.5 percent.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti installed the mayors last week, defying demands from the EU and the US.
Last Friday, there had already been vehement protests against the takeover of mayoral offices by ethnic Albanians and confrontations with the security forces. The police also used tear gas. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic then put the army on "high alert" and sent soldiers to the border with Kosovo.
Kosovo, a country of 1.8 million inhabitants with a majority ethnic Albanian population, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but is still regarded by Belgrade as a Serbian province. Around 120,000 Serbs live in Kosovo.