OSCE calls for de-escalation in Kosovo

by time news

2023-06-02 17:58:16

EA group of Western states led by the United States have blamed the Kosovar government for the recent escalation in the north of the country. Prime Minister Albin Kurti should withdraw police forces and controversial mayors from the town halls of predominantly ethnic Serb towns where there have been clashes with NATO-led troops KFOR came.

“We call on all sides to take immediate action to de-escalate tensions,” the US representative on the Board of Governors said in a statement Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on Thursday. He was also speaking on behalf of France, Germany, Italy and Great Britain, it said.

In a statement on Twitter, Kurti was in principle ready for new elections of said mayors. The local elections, in which ethnic Albanians were elected to office, had been boycotted by the Serbs, apparently at the instigation of the Serb government in Belgrade, which does not recognize Kosovo’s statehood. The turnout was only around 3.5 percent. A prerequisite for new elections, however, is a withdrawal of the violent mobs in front of the municipal offices, Kurti wrote.

The OSCE statement said the Kosovan government’s decision to force access to municipal offices had unnecessarily increased tensions. Kurti and his government should arrange for the elected mayors to exercise their temporary powers from other buildings and remove the police from city halls.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and the government in Belgrade should downgrade the state of alert of their armed forces. They should urge the Kosovar Serbs not to commit any more violence. The Kosovo and Serbia should immediately commit to entering into an EU-organized dialogue.

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