Kosovo's government has rejected Serbia's demand to dismiss new mayors elected in a disputed ballot, which has led to a standoff that triggered violence between protesters and NATO peacekeepers. Ethnic Serb protesters clashed with NATO-led peacekeepers in northern Kosovo on Monday, injuring 30 Hungarian and Italian soldiers. The protest was over the April election that Kosovar Serbs, backed by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, boycotted. The result was the victory of ethnic-Albanian candidates, which the Serbs reject.
Vucic called for the "fake" mayors to stop trying to take their positions and for police to withdraw from the area, saying it "is a condition for preserving peace." However, the Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti's government rejected the demand, indicating that the current mayors were the only ones with legitimacy to be in their offices. Government spokesman Perparim Kryeziu attributed the boycott to political motives and acknowledged that the officials were mayors with a small "m" due to the extremely low turnout of about 3%.
Even though ethnic Serbs make up only 5% of predominantly ethnic-Albanian Kosovo's 1.8 million people, they dominate a few northern towns next to the border with Serbia. The escalation in violence essentially disrupts US-backed, European Union-led negotiations aimed at fixing ties between Kosovo and Serbia, which refuses to accept its neighbor's 2008 declaration of independence.