NATO troops stationed in Kosovo under the alliance’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) mission were wounded Monday while trying to disperse a group of ethnic Serb protesters in the town of Zvecan.
Tensions escalated in Zvecan on Friday after Kosovo police used tear gas to disband a group of Serbs who were trying to block an ethnic Albanian mayor from entering his office building.
The mayor won office in an election that was boycotted by the ethnic Serb majority in northern Kosovo. Serbs in four of Kosovo’s northern municipalities have been protesting the results of the elections they didn’t participate in.
Since Kosovo formally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, the ethnic Serb population of Kosovo hasn’t recognized the government in Pristina and considers themselves part of Serbia.
After Friday’s incident, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken slammed Kosovo in a rare US rebuke of Pristina’s treatment of ethnic Serbs. “The United States strongly condemns the actions by the government of Kosovo to access municipal buildings in the north of Kosovo by force, actions it took against the advice of the United States and Kosovo’s European partners,” Blinken said.
On Monday, KFOR troops moved to disperse Serb protesters in Zvecan after issuing a warning. “You are causing unrest. You are putting yourself and your community at risk. Leave the area and go home — otherwise KFOR will be forced to intervene,” the warning said.
According to Radio Free Europe, a US state-funded media outlet, KFOR troops used tear gas and shock bombs. Videos of the incident also showed protesters throwing items at the KFOR soldiers.
Despite moving to clear out the crowd, KFOR claimed its soldiers were the victims of an “unprovoked” attack. “While countering the most active fringes of the crowd, several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices,” KFOR said in a press release.
There are about 3,700 NATO troops deployed in Kosovo under KFOR, including over 600 US troops. NATO has had a presence in the region since its 1999 bombing campaign against Serbia that resulted in the creation of the state of Kosovo.
What does Blinken want? He is issuing “rebuke” to Pristina while fully behond them in this most blatant sham of ekection ever. While “rebuking” Pristina in trying to take possession of offices by Albanians in heavily Serb majority areas — he is OK by KFOR applying force to do the same!
What on earth foes Blinken — or US for that matter — wants to accomplish in this part of Kosovo? How does he plan to continue supporting Prishtina in their push to disenfranchise majority population in those counties? Solution is not to ram Albanian mayors down their throat.
This is a provocation, not an attempt to find a solution.
It is almost as if Kosovo is trying to instigate outrage in Serbia, forcing its hand and be cornered iinto a military solution. So NATO can have an excuse to intervene. It may be what is needed to remove Serbian populatikn from Kosovo, and eradicate its ancient monasteries — the reminder of whose land it was once upon a time.
There is no more tolerance left in the corridirs of Western powers. Minorities are roothlessly abused, marginalized and eventually removed. With NATO blessing.
I just hope this war can be avoided. And Blinken to do more than “rebuke” his darlings. They are getting out of control while NATO and US are distracted by Ukraine, Russia, China. And why not. They have been getting away with murders so far.
Wait until “the peacekeepers” bring in their snipers to “pacify the civilians.” NATO doesn’t want an escalation. (Sarcasm alert)
“According to Radio Free Europe, a US state-funded media outlet…” Dave! When I read that, I inhaled my coffee the wrong way, chocked then coughed it back at my laptop. Just as I was able to regain normal breathing, here comes the word, “unprovoked.” Do you ever think about the safety of your readers or their laptops? …People are wrong, you do have a sense of humor and I don’t like it–I LOVE IT! (Sarcasm alert)
Proposed disclaimer: Don’t drink coffee (or any other fluid) while reading stories on Antiwar. Linked propaganda sources may invoke laughter.
According to the VOA they are not biased nor a state-sponsored organization that needs a Twiiter label like RT has.
This shared this when PBS and Musk was feuding over that label.
The US destroyed Yugoslavia in order to create more easily managed semi real smaller countries. Americans are individually nice and collectively ugly.
Not Americans or English people. The Anglo-American empire is.
Agreed.
The US planned, trained (with CIA and military operatives, intelligence, etc.) and supplied Croatia for it’s Operation Storm which was an ethnic cleansing campaign to drive out 200,000 ethnic Serbs from Krajina.
If anything, we’ve learned that ethnic cleansing and genocide are ok when the US supports it. God help you if you are on the other side.
Ultimately, the US achieved its goal to setup NATO proxy-statelets in Croatia, Slovenia, N. Macedonia as well as an eastern outpost base with Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo, the largest US base in the Balkans. How convenient!
As Bianca mentioned, the Albanians will push and provoke the Serbians to outrage and action, and then cry foul. They know this game all to well. One day it’s Kosovo license plates, another it’s bogus elections of mayors and so on. Albanian mayors will not last long in North Mitrovica.
I wouldn’t be surprised if resident Albanians in Kosovo resume burning UNESCO designated Serbian Orthodox monasteries and churches and be rebuked by the US, only after the US turns a blind eye to it again. All in effort to erase Serbian identity/history in Kosovo, Serbia.
Косово је Србна!
һвала (И слушам “һвала” на преводиоцу).
I’m glad that North American Terrorist Occupation forces are being harmed but the harm that come to Serbian people is much greater. The number of injuries to people is much greater than to terrorist occupation thugs.
More info on the conflict from SouthFront
https://www.bitchute.com/video/snZrqjt8sA7j
Why doesn’t Antiwar provide the number of protesters that were injured by the NATO troops? Bias showing?
If Antiwar.com has a bias, it runs the other way than you’re implying. US/NATO interventions in the Balkans, starting with Bosnia and continuing to Kosovo, were what inspired Eric Garris and Justin Raimondo to start the site.
If you all do not share everything and constantly repeat the stories to remind us, then you are biased. Also you must know what to focus on without me telling you or it is an very obvious case of bias.
Why do people believe they must have everything they need in one site?
Even the ones with different perspectives than one’s own can be informative.
There are no bias-free individuals. The concept of bias-free simply doesn’t exist in humans. We’re not machines.
Exactly.
Plus complaining about another in an attempt to force them to change to be something you prefer is not nice and darn authoritarian if you believe you can force someone to comport themselves in your eyes, properly.
If you don’t like something, don’t use it or if it’s a person tell them to back off but to tell someone to change a bias?
This is a universal human (or probably mammalian) problem. We are social creatures and we all have this desire for unity, agreement and social comfort. This human element is very easy to exploit to facilitate conflict.
Yes. Yet even so, humans can figure things out.
For example; President Obrador says there is a consciousness revolution happening in Mexico. Mexicans cannot be fooled again as a people. The President rocked on his feet and flashed a Mexican grin almost too fast to see when he said, “Sato” (I’ll pass). He agrees with savvy Mexican youth.
Well, he should be ready for disappointment. I was thinking Ukrainian people were immune to imperial propaganda and regime changes back in 2014. This has been an 8 year nightmare and I was actually kind of relieved Kremlin actually started doing something.
The easist way to get around one’s perception of “bias” is to share a couple of news stories about the event in a link with some analysis of your own.
Just use some decent links please.
I can remember a classmate lamenting the breakup of the USSR as the nexis of why she and her family was forced to leave whatever part of the former Yugoslavia she grew up in because someone wanted the area her family had been given/taken after WW2 and were shooting people to do it.
That war did take our minds off of Monica and that cigar though.
Just read an article that indicated that Turkey will be sending a contingent to Kosovo.
Quoting the CTV source,
“We urge restraint and dialogue to resolve these developments in northern Kosovo which endanger regional security and stability,” the Turkish statement read. The Turkish commando battalion will be deploying to the Sultan Murat Barracks in Kosovo on Sunday and Monday.”
What blows me away is the fact that of all NATO alliance countries to pick and choose from, they (US) decide to send in Turkey. That will really help to resolve regional security <>.
This act alone underscores the sheer f**king ignorance of the US led western nations that are to blame for this latest crisis.
Косово је Србна