EU envoy tells Kosovo and Serbia to return to dialogue

PRISTINA, Oct 21 (Reuters) – The European Union Particular Envoy Miroslav Lajcak urged Serbia and Kosovo to return to dialogue on normalising ties to keep away from a repeat of final month’s violence in northern Kosovo.

Tensions between Belgrade and Pristina have run excessive since Sept. 24, when round 30 armed Serbs stormed the village of Banjska in Kosovo’s predominantly Serb north and barricaded themselves right into a Serbian Orthodox monastery.

Police recaptured the monastery after a shootout by which three attackers and a Kosovo police officer have been killed.

“The assaults in Banjska have modified many issues they usually should be correctly investigated…On the identical time the dialogue should proceed,” Lajcak mentioned after assembly Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti.

“If there may be not dialogue there is perhaps a repetition of escalation.”

Final month’s gunbattle prompted new worldwide concern over stability in Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority and declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a guerrilla rebellion and a 1999 NATO intervention.

Lajcak is visiting the area with america Particular Envoy for the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, and representatives of France, Germany and Italy.

After discussions with Kurti, the group will journey to fulfill Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in a while Saturday.

Some 50,000 Serbs who dwell in north Kosovo don’t recognise Pristina’s establishments and see Belgrade as their capital. They’ve typically clashed with Kosovo police and worldwide peacekeepers, however final month’s violence was the worst in years.

Lajcak urged Pristina to begin engaged on establishing an affiliation of Serb municipalities to permit better autonomy for Serb majority areas. Kurti has rejected the proposal, arguing that autonomy might result in the secession of the Serb-majority space and its unification with Serbia.

Pristina authorities have accused Belgrade of arming and supporting the Serb fighters in Banjska, one thing Serbian authorities have denied.

Lajcak urged Belgrade to analyze the occasions and punish any perpetrators in its territory.

Serbia refuses to recognise independence of Kosovo and considers it nonetheless a part of its territory.

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