NATO investigates shooting incident in Northern Kosovo

Pristina, The Gulf Observer: NATO-led peacekeepers in Kosovo said Monday they were investigating a shooting incident in a tense northern region, urging calm after Serbia sent its army chief to the border area in response.

The incident on Sunday evening took place in Zubin Potok, a town in northern Kosovo where local ethnic Serbs have been manning road barricades for the past two weeks and where tensions have been running high between the two former wartime foes.

The peacekeepers, known as KFOR, said the incident happened in close proximity of one of their patrols, involving unknown people. A statement said no one was injured and “we are working to establish all the facts.”

Kosovo remains a potential flashpoint in the Balkans years after the 1998-99 war that ended with NATO intervention. Serbia doesn’t recognize the 2008 declaration of independence of its former province, while Western efforts to mediate a solution so far have failed.

Serbian army vehicles could be seen on the roads in the area on Monday, and the Balkan nation’s defense minister also arrived. Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic, Gen. Mojsilovic and other senior army officers discussed the security situation during a meeting in Raska, a defense ministry statement said.

Serbia has asked KFOR to deploy up to 1,000 of its troops in the Serb-populated north of Kosovo, to protect Kosovo Serbs from alleged harassment by ethnic Albanians, who are the majority in the country. The request so far hasn’t been granted.