Kosovo Police

"Landep News"

Kosovo Police

A police officer lost his life in Kosovo on Tuesday in an attempt to take control of two border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia that were in the northern region where the Serbian ethnics live in the breakaway Kosovo.

The 31-year-old police officer was shot in the head and a colleague of his was wounded as they came under fire in the Serbian-dominated area. The second police officer was wounded by a grenade but his life is not in danger.

The violence broke out as the Kosovo government attempted to take control of border crossings at Mitrovica, the aria dominated by Serbian minority, with the intention of stopping the smuggling of goods from Serbia, as the government has imposed a restrictions on imports from Serbia.

The police also wanted to take the opportunity to take control over the northern region of Kosovo, where the government in Pristina has no authority and does not collect taxes.

The raid was launched by the special police helped by armored cars at the direct order of Prime Minister Hashim Thaci.

Kosovo imposed restrictions on goods that were coming from Serbia, and Serbia refused to recognize the Kosovo stamps the goods need in order to cross the border.

The European Union mission in Kosovo announced that they were not consulted by the Kosovo government about this raid in the north, and the continental body criticized the action ordered by Pristina, calling both sides not to escalate violence in the region.

6,000 troops under U.N. mandate are still in Kosovo, eleven years after the fierce war that led to the separation of Kosovo from Serbia, the final act of a very painful chain of wars on the territory of former Yugoslavia.

On Tuesday evening, NATO sent troops in the region of Mitrovica, where Albanians and Serbs are separated by Ibar River. A Slovenian convoy backed by armored cars was sent to the bridge over the river in question to maintain peace between the two ethnic groups.

In an interview on national television, Hashim Thaci said that Kosovo could no longer tolerate that a part of the country refuse to come under the governmental authority and to pay taxes, and that Kosovo’s sovereignty be violated in that region.

Angry Kosovo Serbs blocked the roads with wooden logs and trucks, and Serbia warned the international community about a possible escalation of violence in the region.

The European foreign policy chief Catherine Ashley and the United States have urged the Kosovo authorities and the ones in Serbia to help diffuse the conflict. The United States authorities have expressed their regret that the action of the police in Kosovo was not coordinated with the international community.

Protest on Kosovska Mitrovica Bridge

Kosovo proclaimed independence in 2008, nine years after the bombing of Serbia by NATO, but the new state was not recognized by Russia, China, Spain, Romania, and other countries.

Since independence, Kosovo was turned into a black hole for terrorist and criminal activity.

An international warrant arrest was issued by Serbia even in the name of Hashim Thaci, the prime minister of this self-proclaimed state, for the accusation of human organ trafficking.

The warrant cannot be executed because Thaci has diplomatic immunity. He is wanted in Serbia, where he must serve a ten-year sentence for terrorism, as leader of UCK, the Kosovo Army of Liberation.

The integration of Serbia into the European Union depends on the solution of the Kosovo case. Serbia has never recognized the newly proclaimed state, and imposed an embargo on it since the declaration of independence.

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