Kosovo-Serbia tension: History, latest flare-up and what’s next?
Al JazeeraClashes erupt between police and local Serbs in northern Kosovo after new ethnic Albanian mayors take office. Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared anew this weekend after Kosovo’s police raided Serb-dominated areas in the region’s north and seized local municipality buildings. Violent clashes between Kosovo’s police and NATO-led peacekeepers on one side and local Serbs on the other have left several people injured on both sides. After Serbs boycotted last month’s local elections held in northern Kosovo, where Serbs represent a majority, newly elected ethnic Albanian mayors moved into their offices with the help of Kosovo’s riot police last Friday. Belgrade controls Kosovo’s Serbs, and Kosovo can’t become a member of the United Nations and a functional state without resolving the dispute with Serbia.