Serbia demands new elections in tense north Kosovo as well as return of Serb police and judiciary

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia on Friday demanded that an election be held and ethnic Serbs return to police and judiciary in a Serb-populated northern region of Kosovo where tensions have fueled fears of instability and new armed clashes.

Populist President Aleksandar Vucic also called for the withdrawal of Kosovo's special police from the region bordering Serbia that remains a flashpoint amid stalled efforts by Western countries to help negotiate a solution to the dispute.

The demands are unlikely to be met by Kosovo's leadership.

Serbia does not recognize Kosovo's declaration of independence from 2008. A former Serbian province, Kosovo broke away after a 1998-99 war which ended in a NATO intervention.

Tensions in Kosovo rose anew after Kosovo shut down several Serbia-backed parallel institutions in the north at the end of August. The crackdown by the Kosovo government has sparked criticism from the U.S. and the European Union who fear tensions in Kosovo could lead to wider Balkan instability as the war rages in Ukraine.

In his speech on Friday, Vucic said Serbia is demanding to “return to what has been agreed and achieved so far in the dialogue” between Belgrade and Pristina that has been mediated by the EU since 2011.

These talks have produced several agreements over the years but tensions have persisted with occasional outbursts of violence. Serbia accuses Kosovo of refusing to form an association of Serb-majority municipalities was been agreed in a deal back in 2013.

“What we are demanding is respect of European norms and dialogue,” said Vucic at a special press conference dedicated to Kosovo. “We do not want war.”

Many Serbs consider Kosovo a historic heartland and refuse to acknowledge its split from Serbia. Kosovo is overwhelmingly ethnic Albanian while minority Serbs live mostly in the north and in smaller communities in central Kosovo.

Ethnic Serb lawmakers, judges, and police officers in northern Kosovo resigned en masse in November 2022 in protest over the dismissal of a police officer by Kosovo authorities.

Last year, a gunfight following an incursion by heavily armed Serb gunmen killed a Kosovo policeman and three Serb gunmen in the most serious incident since the war in the 1990s. Kosovo prosecutors this week charged 45 people over the shootout, including a close ally of Vucic.

Vucic said Serbia will continue to assist ethnic Serbs in Kosovo socially and financially. He accused the EU and the U.S. of siding with Kosovo, announcing he would write to U.S. President Joe Biden, Russia's President Vladimir Putin and top EU officials and other world leaders over the current crisis.

EU officials have told Serbia and Kosovo they must normalize ties in order to advance in their bids to join the 27-nation bloc. Belgrade maintains also close relations with Russia and China, which have backed its claim on Kosovo.

Vucic's speech was dominated by his trademark anti-Western rhetoric that he uses when speaking at home.

There are widespread fears that Russia is using its traditional ally Serbia to inflame tensions in Europe in part to defuse attention from its invasion of Ukraine.