Clashes broke out when NATO peacekeepers began removing
roadblocks erected by Serbs in July after Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian-dominated
government tried to send border police to the mainly Serb north.
Western diplomats warn the impasse, with Serb resistance
impeding the work of the EU’s police mission in Kosovo, could cost Serbia
official candidate status for membership of the European Union when the bloc
meets on Dec. 9.
“Two KFOR soldiers were wounded by firearms used by
demonstrators,” said Frank Martin, a spokesman for NATO’s 6,250-strong Kosovo
Force (KFOR).
“We have used a small amount of rubber bullets, tear gas and
pepper spray”, he said. Television pictures also showed NATO using water
cannon, and jostling with Serbs, some armed with sticks and wearing gas masks.
The German Bundeswehr said in a statement that two German
soldiers had been wounded, “probably shot at with hand guns”. Security sources
in Kosovo said one was shot in the hand and the other in the leg.
The clashes took place in the village of Jagnjenica, north
of the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica. Medical officials in the north
said at least 10 Serbs had been treated in hospital for wounds inflicted by
rubber bullets.
Kosovo, where 90 percent of the 1.7 million people are
ethnic Albanians, declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
But Serbs in a small slice of the north bordering Serbia
reject the secession, and the West has struggled to tackle the country’s de
facto ethnic partition.
The EU says the ex-Yugoslav republic must improve relations
with its former southern province if it is to make progress towards accession,
but Kosovo is steeped in history and myth for many Serbs who could punish the
government in an election due early next year.
Officials from Serbia and Kosovo are due to meet in Brussels
on Wednesday for a fresh round of talks, this time on two disputed border
crossings in the north that are at the heart of the current dispute. Kosovo’s
government tried to take control of them in July, but was repelled by armed
Serbs.
Serbia’s state secretary for Kosovo, Oliver Ivanovic, was at
the scene of Monday’s violence. Asked how the turmoil could affect Serbia’s
chances of further EU integration next month, he replied: “This is very bad.”
Last week, 21 NATO soldiers were wounded, one seriously, in
similar clashes.
Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999, when NATO bombed
for 78 days to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians in a two-year
counter-insurgency war under then-President Slobodan Milosevic.
More than 80 countries, including the United States and 22
of the EU’s 27 members, have recognized the state, the last to emerge from the
remains of old federal Yugoslavia.