(ANSA) - BELGRADE, 04 GIU - In northern Kosovo, after a night
spent calmly and without excesses, groups of Serbs this morning
returned to demonstrations in front of the municipalities of
Zvecan, Leposavic and Zubin Potok against the election of new
Albanian mayors, and to demand the withdrawal of Kosovo's
special police from the north and the release of two Serbs
arrested in the May 29 clashes in Zvecan. The situation is calm
but interethnic tension is still palpable. Some demonstrators
remained all night manning municipal buildings, which have been
cordoned off for days by metal barriers and barbed-wire fences,
with a heavy presence of soldiers from Kfor, the NATO Force in
Kosovo, Police units remain inside the municipalities. NATO
soldiers also garrison other sensitive points, including access
roads to the center of towns and to municipal offices.
Meanwhile, from the international community, primarily the EU,
U.S., NATO, and OSCE, appeals for calm and calls for the parties
to refrain from unilateral actions likely to further fuel
tensions continue. Diplomacy is working to defuse the new crisis
in the north, and EU and U.S. envoys Miroslav Lajcak and Gabriel
Escobar are scheduled to arrive in the region tomorrow for talks
with the leaderships in Belgrade and Pristina. The orientation
seems to be to go for new local elections in the north, to be
held on a regular basis and with the participation of Serbs,
whose boycott on April 23 paved the way for the election of
ethnic Albanian mayors. Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti for
his part has let it be known that a new vote can be held only
after the Serb protests have ended. From the EU came at the same
time a pressing invitation to the Kosovar leadership to take
action toward the creation of the Community/Association of
Serb-majority Municipalities of Kosovo. A body envisaged by
agreements a decade ago, clamored for by Belgrade but rejected
by Pristina as unconstitutional. (ANSA).
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Kosovo: calm situation in north but tension remains
Serb protests against Albanian mayors continue