KFOR, the NATO force in Kosovo, confirmed press reports of a shooting that took place in Zubin Potok, one of the four largest municipalities in the north with a Serb majority.
The shots, reported Kfor, took place not far from a patrol of the NATO force, but no injuries or damage to property were reported. According to some media in Pristina, the shooting took place when the Kosovar police tried to dismantle one of the barricades erected two weeks ago by local Serbs in protest against the arrest of some former Serb officers who resigned from the Kosovar police, and against the Serb-majority north of several units of Kosovo's special police. The news of the shooting, whose origin and nature remain unclear, has helped to further increase inter-ethnic tension in northern Kosovo, where the protest of Serbs with road blocks and barricades is creating serious problems for transport and the communication system.
Yesterday the Kosovar premier Albin Kurti had denounced a situation that was no longer tolerable, calling into question the KFOR, whose mandate it received from the UN – he recalled – is to ensure security and freedom of movement throughout the territory of Kosovo. Kurti had added that immediately after Christmas he will meet the commander of the KFOR, the Italian general Angelo Michele Ristuccia.
On the other hand, the news arrives from Belgrade that the chief of staff of the Serbian army, Milan Mojsilovic, proposed the deployment of troops on the border with Kosovo. Mojsilovic went to Raska, near the border with Kosovo, in the evening after meeting the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic. "The tasks that have been entrusted to the Serbian Army, and to me as Chief of Staff, are precise and clear, and will be fulfilled.", guaranteed Mojsilovic to the microphones of RTV Pink, the main private television network in Serbia.