Tensions between Serbia and Kosovo flared again this weekend after Kosovo police raided Serb-dominated areas in the north of the region and seized local municipal buildings.
Violent clashes between Kosovo police and peacekeepers led by NATO on the one hand and local Serbs on the other left several people injured on both sides.
The situation has once again fueled fears of a renewal of the 1998-1999 conflict in Kosovo, which claimed more than 10,000 lives and left more than a million homeless.
Why are Serbia and Kosovo at odds?
Kosovo is a predominantly ethnic Albanian populated area that used to be a province of Serbia. It declared independence in 2008.
Serbia has refused to recognize the state of Kosovo and still considers it part of Serbia, even though it has no formal control there.
Kosovo’s independence has been recognized by about 100 countries, including the United States.
Russia, China and five European Union countries have sided with Serbia. The deadlock has put tensions to rest and has prevented a full stabilization of the Balkan region after the bloody wars of the 1990s.
What is the latest flare-up about?
After Serbs boycotted local elections last month in northern Kosovo, where Serbs represent the majority, newly elected ethnic Albanian mayors moved into their offices last Friday with the help of Kosovo’s riot police.
Serbs tried to prevent them from taking over the property, but police fired tear gas to disperse them.
On Monday, Serbs staged a protest in front of municipal buildings, sparking a tense standoff that resulted in fierce clashes between the Serbs and Kosovo peacekeepers and local police.
How deep is the ethnic conflict in Kosovo?
The dispute over Kosovo is centuries old. Serbia cherishes the region as the heart of its state and religion.
Numerous medieval Serbian Orthodox Christian monasteries are located in Kosovo. Serbian nationalists consider a battle in 1389 against the Ottoman Turks there as a symbol of their national struggle.
The ethnic Albanians in Kosovo regard Kosovo as their country and accuse Serbia of occupation and oppression. Ethnic Albanian rebels started an uprising in 1998 to liberate the country from Serb rule.
Belgrade’s ruthless response led to a NATO intervention in 1999, which forced Serbia to withdraw and hand over control to international peacekeepers.
What is the situation on site?
There are constant tensions between the government of Kosovo and the Serbs who mainly live in the north of the country and maintain close ties with Belgrade.
Attempts by the central government to impose more control in the Serb-dominated north are usually met with opposition from Serbs.
Mitrovica, the main city in the north, is effectively divided into an ethnic Albanian part and a Serb part, and the two sides rarely mix. There are also smaller Serb-populated enclaves in southern Kosovo, while tens of thousands of Kosovo Serbs live in central Serbia, where they fled with retreating Serb forces in 1999.
Have any attempts been made to resolve the dispute?
There have been continuous international efforts to reach an agreement, but no final agreement has yet been reached.
EU officials have brokered negotiations to normalize relations between the two. Numerous agreements were reached during the negotiations, but they were rarely implemented in practice. Results have been achieved in some areas, such as the introduction of freedom of movement in the country.
An idea has been floated for border changes and land swaps as the way forward, but this was rejected by many EU countries for fear it could set off a chain reaction in other ethnically mixed areas in the Balkans and cause more problems in the region afterwards . the wars of the nineties.
Who are the main players?
Both Kosovo and Serbia are led by nationalist leaders who have shown no willingness to compromise.
In Kosovo, Albin Kurti, a former student protest leader and political prisoner in Serbia, heads the government and is the main negotiator in EU-brokered talks. He was also known as a staunch supporter of Kosovo’s unification with Albania and opposes any compromise with Serbia.
Serbia is led by populist President Aleksandar Vucic, who served as Minister of Information during the war in Kosovo. The former ultra-nationalist insists that any solution must be a compromise to survive and says the country will not settle until it gains something.
What happens now?
International officials hope to speed up negotiations and reach a resolution in the coming months.
Any Serbian military intervention in Kosovo would mean a clash with NATO peacekeepers stationed there. Belgrade controls the Kosovo Serbs, and Kosovo cannot become a member of the United Nations and a functional state without resolving the dispute with Serbia.