World News | US Balkan envoy urges Kosovo, Serbia to ease tensions or jeopardize EU process

BELGRADE (Serbia), June 7 (AP) — The U.S. envoy to the Balkans urged Kosovo and Serbia on Wednesday to defuse rising ethnic tensions in the former Serbian province or risk jeopardizing their announced bid to one day join the European Union The goal.

Gabriel Escobar and EU mediator Miroslav Lečak have been in talks with the leaders of Serbia and Kosovo on how to resume talks between the two former wartime foes.

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Tensions resumed in Kosovo late last month, including violent clashes between Kosovo police and NATO-led peacekeepers and local Serbs, in which dozens were injured on both sides.

“With the full support of the United States, the EU has made it clear that this is a European process. Dialogue and mediation is a European process,” Escobar told reporters in Belgrade.

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“Turning their backs in the process would be turning their backs on Europe, which would have all the consequences of failing closer integration and closer relations with Europe. That in itself is a very serious consequence.”

Tensions escalated when Kosovo police seized local municipal buildings in northern Kosovo, where a Serb majority was in place to appoint an ethnic Albanian mayor who was elected in local elections in April after Serbs overwhelmingly boycotted the vote.

“We have to de-escalate immediately, which means we want the mayors not to try to use the buildings, the Kosovo police to withdraw from around the buildings, but we also want to make sure the (Serb) protesters leave the area as well,” Esko said. Val said.

He said the international mediator had also proposed new local elections with “unconditional” Serb participation.

Serbia and its former province Kosovo have been at odds for decades, with Belgrade refusing to recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.

The latest violence near their shared border has stoked fears of a renewed 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo that claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people, mostly ethnic Albanians. (Associated Press)

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