29.05.2023 - XK: pri nepokojoch v Zvečane boli zranení vojaci KFOR

In today's clashes in the village of Zvečan (42°54'27.50 "N 20°50'25.42 "E), near the town of Kosovska Mitrovica, 11 Italian KFOR soldiers were wounded, three of whom are in serious condition, the Italian Foreign Minister said. The KFOR soldiers were wounded in Kosovo during clashes between Serbian demonstrators and Kosovo police. In addition, 20 soldiers of the Hungarian armed forces participating in the KFOR mission were also injured.


There is conflicting information on the number of wounded. While along the lines of national defence, prior to the Ministry's announcement, the wounded were reported as 25 soldiers (11 of them Italians), the Italian press wrote of a total of 41 wounded, adding that this was an Italian-Hungarian-Moldovan battalion.

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Several anti-government protests took place in Serbia today. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó spoke at a rally in support of President Vucic in Belgrade's Nikola Pašić Square.

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Clashes erupted in the northern Kosovo town of Zvecan last week after Kosovo police tried to help the newly elected Albanian mayor take office. He was prevented from doing so by local ethnic Serbs, who are the majority in the area and boycotted local elections held on 23 April to protest that their demands for greater autonomy had not been met. Turnout was only 3.47 per cent and local Serbs said they would not cooperate with the new ethnic Albanian mayors in the four districts because they were not their elected representatives.
Kosovo police used tear gas against the crowd gathered outside the town hall. Protesters set fire to one police vehicle.


On Monday morning, the NATO-backed International Security Force blocked citizens' access to the municipal administration buildings of Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok, as well as to the bridge over the Ibar River that separates the Albanian and Serbian parts of Kosovska Mitrovica.


Citizens began to gather near the cordons, demanding that they be allowed to go to work and that the Pristina police be withdrawn from the Serb administrative buildings. The demonstrators attempted to break through the cordons, KFOR forces let the Serbs through and the unrecognised Kosovo police fired tear gas at them.


In response to the tensions in Kosovo, the Serbian army put its troops on high alert on the instructions of President Aleksandar Vucic and ordered military units to move closer to the border with Kosovo.

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