NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoana has warned that the Alliance and its mission for Kosovo, KFOR, is «vigilant and ready to intervene.»
«NATO’s KFOR remains vigilant and is ready to intervene if stability is threatened,» Geoana warned in a message posted on Twitter.
«I have spoken with (EU special representative for Belgrade-Pristina dialogue) Miroslav Lajcák about the tense situation in northern Kosovo. Both Belgrade and Pristina must show restraint and avoid escalation,» he added.
This Sunday there has been a rally in Mitrovica, the most important town in the Serb-majority north of Kosovo, where banners such as «We have only one country, Serbia» or «Enough of Kurti’s terror», in reference to the Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, were read.
«With a clean face and a shining forehead before the court of God», «I am a Serb and everything here is mine» or «Europe, do your children have the right to freedom?», were other slogans that could be read.
On Saturday, Kosovo Serbs resigned en bloc from their positions as MPs, mayors and officials of all ranks in a coordinated protest initiative to express their rejection of the imposition of Kosovar license plates in Kosovo’s Serb-majority north.
Kosovo Serbs in the country’s four Serb-majority municipalities consider the Kosovar authorities to be in breach of agreements signed with Serbia and the European Union.
The resignations are the result of a meeting held in the town of Zvecan and called by the Serbian List party (Srpska Lista), according to the Balkan Insight news portal. Srpska Lista has explained that mayors, councilors, deputies, judges, prosecutors, judicial officials and police officers have resigned from their posts.
In particular, they criticize Pristina’s intention to impose Kosovar license plates and invalidate Serbian ones and defend the need to create the Association of Serbian Municipalities to represent the interests of Serbs in Kosovo.
Last Thursday the regional director of the Kosovo Police for the Serb-majority north, Nenad Djuric, was dismissed on suspicion of defending the resistance. Djuric assured then that the Kosovo Serb police would not apply the fines established by the Kosovar authorities for those who do not use Kosovar license plates.
Pristina has announced a progressive introduction of the license plates until April 21 after postponing their introduction initially planned for November 1.
A senior Kosovar police commander, Vjosa Osmani, has denounced that «Serbia is forcing and inciting Kosovo Serbs to abandon their posts in Kosovo’s institutions».
«Serbia has unilaterally breached all the Brussels agreements on the dismantling of all its illegal structures in Kosovo,» he added, although he defended the need for all Kosovar institutions to be multi-ethnic.
