FLASH
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Regarding the recent escalation of violence in the north of Kosovo, the expert on the Balkans, Florian Bieber, tells Deutsche Wellen that he does not expect the conflict to spread on a large scale.
mr. Bieber, how worried are you that this conflict could escalate even more in Kosovo?
Florian Bieber: I think we have to take into account that the probability of Serbian army units crossing the border into Kosovo is extremely low, given that the KFOR peacekeeping operation is in force in Kosovo under the international mandate and under the leadership of NATO. s. I think it is more likely that this type of conflict that we saw (on May 29) will be repeated, if there is no de-escalation from both the Kosovo and Serbian governments. Therefore, the international authorities are acting in this direction, so that this does not happen again. But even this in itself is very destabilizing both for Kosovo and for the entire region. So I think we won't see any large-scale conflict. But what is happening now also has some consequences for both countries.
DW: Why did the majority of Kosovo Serbs boycott last month's local elections when it is known that the Albanians may take control of the municipalities? Does this mean that the Serbs themselves dug the hole themselves...?
Florian Bieber: I think the point is that these institutions and elected mayors really lack democratic legitimacy. Turnout was well below 10 percent. In some cases, like in the town of Zveçan, the participation was only about 3 percent. So, only about 100 people voted for the mayor. The Serbs boycotted the elections partly at the behest of Belgrade. They insisted that first the association of municipalities with a Serbian majority be formed - this is part of the agreement between Serbia and Kosovo. While Kosovo insisted on holding these elections, because since the fall, since the departure of the Serbs from the institutions, there have been no legitimate elected authorities there. In this sense, we have an impasse.A few months ago, the EU highly valued the agreement between Serbia and Kosovo. But it turned out that this was quite foolish, which we are now seeing in practice. So the EU and the US somehow lost their leadership in trying to negotiate the right way to fix the relationship between these two countries.
DW: Can you explain what role the Kosovo Serbs play in Serbia's internal politics?
Florian Bieber: They don't play a big role in Serbia's internal politics, because they are only a few tens of thousands. On the contrary, Serbia, specifically President Aleksandar Vučić, has a great deal of control over the Serbian community in Kosovo. So, while many Kosovo Serbs were frustrated by the steps taken by the Kosovo government, the almost complete boycott of the elections was also due to fear, because the Serbian List in the north is controlled by Belgrade, there is a strong control through a kind of underground there, through illegal criminal and security structures. This means that the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, has complete control over northern Kosovo and gives very little space to the local Serbs to articulate their political problems./dw
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