KFOR Soldiers and Serb Protesters Injured in Kosovo Violence
Four NATO peacekeepers and six Serb protesters were wounded Tuesday when violence erupted at a disputed crossing point between Serbia and Kosovo, officials said.
The violence came just hours before Belgrade was due to resume EU-mediated talks with Pristina aimed at calming tensions in majority-Serb northern Kosovo.
"Four KFOR soldiers are wounded by pipe bomb (an improvised explosive device). One of them badly and three slightly," Kai Gudenoge, deputy spokesman of the NATO-led force, told AFP.
He added that the seriously injured soldier was medevac’d for treatment.
Meanwhile the director of a hospital in nearby Kosovska Mitrovica told local media that six Serb protestors who clashed with KFOR at the disputed Jarinje border post were seriously injured by gunfire.
The latest incidents happened at around 1:00 pm (1100 GMT), when KFOR fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse some 1,500 Serb demonstrators protesting against the dismantling of their roadblock at Jarinje.
The Serbs surrounded a few dozen KFOR soldiers in five transport vehicles and started pelting them with rocks.
"They (Serbs) threw stones on German soldiers. One solider was hit and the troops were forced to fire non-lethal rounds in self-defense," Gudenoge said.
Serbia's Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic told the Belgrade-based state-controlled RTS television channel that at least a dozen people were injured, four seriously.
KFOR briefly detained five of the protestors who attempted to prevent the peacekeepers from dismantling the roadblock.
The Serb protesters responded by setting up a new roadblock close to the dismantled one.
The incidents come as EU-mediated talks between Belgrade and Pristina are due to resume in Brussels later Tuesday.
Serbia's chief negotiator in the talks, Borko Stefanovic, blamed KFOR for the impact the latest violence might have on the talks.
The incidents at Jarinje show that "there are some forces" who do not want to solve problems peacefully and who are ready to "shoot at unarmed people", he told Beta news agency.
"This is being done with the goal of getting Serbia to give up the dialogue and then accusing it of not wanting peaceful solutions," Stefanovic said, urging Serbs in Kosovo to remain calm.
Last Friday, Kosovo police and officials from the EU rule of law mission to Kosovo (EULEX) took control of the two main crossing points between northern Kosovo and Serbia.
Fearing this would limit their access to Serbia, Serbs in northern Kosovo responded by erecting a dozen barricades to block traffic to and from the posts.
By stationing Kosovo police and customs officials on the northern crossings, Pristina is trying to get a grip on the majority-Serb north which rejects Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence and refuses to recognize the ethnic Albanian government.
The latest tensions follow violent clashes late July when Serb protesters confronted Kosovo police who tried to take control of the border posts to enforce a trade ban with Serbia.