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Several Killed As Clashes Rock Kosovo Monastery

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

BELGRADE/PRISTINA/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Volatile Kosovo edged closer to civil war late Sunday after at least four people were killed following a raid by Kosovan security forces on a monastery held by dozens of heavily armed men near the border with Serbia.

“We put this territory under control. It was done after several consecutive battles,” explained Xhelal Svecla, Kosovo’s minister of internal affairs.

Belgrade and Pristina quickly blamed each other for Kosovo’s deadliest violence in recent years.

Serbia never recognized the independence of Kosovo, which broke away from its bigger neighbor following a bloody 1998-1999 war.

Kosovo eventually declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but tensions remained between the predominantly Muslim Albanian majority and minority Orthodox Christian Serbs. Kosovo’s Serbs have increasingly demanded greater autonomy from the ethnic Albanian majority.

Sunday’s clashes highlighted a long-simmering conflict between these two groups, with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić saying three of those killed in the shooting were Kosovo Serbs. Vučić denied his country’s involvement in the fighting, though his troops had been mobilized near Kosovo’s borders in previous violent episodes.

Witnesses said Sunday’s shooting began at about 03:00 a.m. local time when police said they arrived in Banjska, where a blockade had been reported. Officers were attacked from several positions with “an arsenal of firearms, including hand grenades and shoulder-fired missiles,” police added in a statement.

GUNMEN IN MONASTERY

A group of about 30 gunmen then entered the monastery complex in nearby Leposavic, where pilgrims from the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad were staying, according to authorities.

The Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC), which oversees the Banjska monastery, said calm has returned to the monastery and that police are now in control of the situation.

“The Raška-Prizren Diocese (SOC) informs the public that the situation at the Banjska monastery is presently stable,” it declared in a statement. “The armed individuals who breached the gate earlier today have left the premises, and there is now a presence of Kosovo police and [the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo] EULEX at the entrance and within the monastery’s courtyard.”

In a statement Sunday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, condemned the attack and called for a de-escalation of the situation.

“I condemn in the strongest possible terms the hideous attack by an armed gang against Kosovo Police officers in Banjska/Banjskë in the north of Kosovo, which left one police officer dead,” he stressed in published remarks. “The responsible perpetrators must face justice.”

He acknowledged that “More innocent lives are at risk in ongoing hostilities in the surroundings of Banjska Monastery,” suggesting that more violence is still possible in the ethically tense region. “These attacks must stop immediately.”

EULEX “is on the ground and in close contact with the authorities and KFOR,” the NATO-led international peacekeeping force in Kosovo, Borrell said.

EU URGES CALM

“The EU and its Member States repeatedly urge all actors to work to de-escalate the situation in the north of Kosovo,” where most Serbs live, he noted.

Kosovo’s foreign minister, Donika Gervalla-Schwarz, criticized Borrell’s comments, saying they did not express support for Kosovo’s police nor use the word “terrorists” to describe the attackers.

Tensions between Kosovo and Serbia have escalated recently, with violent protests erupting in May over controversial local elections.

Dozens of NATO peacekeepers, including at least 11 Italian and 19 Hungarian soldiers, sustained injuries in clashes at the time along with about 50 protesters, Worthy News monitored.

That unrest in northern Kosovo in May began after Kosovo Albanian mayors were installed in majority-Serb areas after Serb residents boycotted local polls.

Sunday’s violence follows the latest EU-mediated talks on more peaceful relations between Kosovo’s central government and neighboring Serbia and the Serbian minority, which collapsed last week.

Borrell blamed Kurti for the deadlock, saying he failed to set up an association of Serb-majority municipalities, which would give them more autonomy.