EU hits Kosovo with sanctions after Serb tensions flare up again

The EU introduced rare restrictions against Kosovo officials for failing to quell tensions with the ethnic Serb community which escalated in recent days, leading to Belgrade arresting three Kosovo policemen.

The bloc reduced high-level visits, contacts and financial co-operation with the Balkan country, mirroring similar measures taken by the US late last month. The steps are reversible and “incremental”, with “financial and political consequences”, EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano said.

Relations between Kosovo and Serbia dipped to a low point in May, when ethnic Albanian mayors who had won elections boycotted by the majority-Serb population in the north of the country tried to take office. Accompanied by law enforcement, their attempt ignited a violent protest that injured dozens of Nato peacekeepers and Serb demonstrators.

Despite recent commitments by the Kosovo government to rerun the election and gradually pull special police officers from the north of the country, tensions have flared up again in recent days. Serb protesters took to the streets on Tuesday, in protests that left three policemen injured, after an alleged organiser of the May demonstrations was arrested.

On Wednesday, Serbia seemingly retaliated by arresting three “fully armed” Kosovo police officers; Belgrade complained of an illegal intrusion while Pristina called it a kidnapping.

“We suspect that they have been kidnapped by the Serbian army, clearly as Serbia’s revenge for yesterday’s arrest of notorious criminal Millun Millenković-Lune, who is one of the leaders of organised crime and smuggling,” Kosovo prime minister Albin Kurti said on Wednesday.

Serbia’s chief negotiator with Kosovo, Petar Petković, denied that the police officers were kidnapped and insisted they had ventured “deep in[to] Serbia’s territory” while wearing full combat gear. He said Serbian authorities were ready to offer evidence for that assertion and called for an international investigation.

Tensions have been high between the two countries since Kosovo declared its independence in 2008 following a brief war against Serbian rule in 1999. Overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian, Kosovo’s four northernmost municipalities are majority Serb, and refuse to accept Pristina’s rule.

Diplomatic talks pushed for by western allies reached a tentative agreement in March. But the subsequent local elections and rapidly escalating tensions had all but rendered that agreement unworkable, according to local Serbs, who find that neither Belgrade nor Pristina looks out for their interests.

An armed uprising is always on the cards, and the situation is especially precarious now, according to Milica Andrić Rakić, an activist of the local rights group New Social Initiative.

“We are there,” she said, referring to the chance of violent conflict. “It’s just a matter of time when it happens. It could have easily happened yesterday. We are at a point of possible conflict that will be difficult to control.”