In Belgrade, Milan Radoicic, a prominent Serbian politician from Kosovo, admitted on Friday to participating in a shootout with the police in northern Kosovo, a region dominated by the Serbs, resulting in four deaths.
Last Sunday, the Kosovo police engaged in a confrontation with approximately 30 heavily armed Serbs who had barricaded themselves inside the Serbian Orthodox monastery in the village of Banjska. The skirmish resulted in the deaths of three attackers and a Kosovo Albanian police officer.
The 50,000 Serbs residing in northern Kosovo do not acknowledge the authority of Pristina’s institutions and consider Belgrade to be their capital. They often clash with the Kosovo police and international peacekeepers, but the violence on Sunday was the most severe in years.
In a letter sent to Reuters through his lawyer, Radoicic, who is wanted in Kosovo and resides in neighboring Serbia, stated that he had traveled to Kosovo “to encourage the Serbian people to resist (Prime Minister Albin) Kurti’s terrorist regime.”
“I personally organized the logistics for the defense of the Serbian people,” Radoicic added, clarifying that he did not inform the Serbian authorities about his activities nor received any assistance from them.
Kosovo authorities had accused Serbia of providing financial and practical support for the operation, a claim that Belgrade denied.
Radoicic stated that the killing of the Kosovo policeman was accidental.
According to him, “intense crossfire erupted from both sides, resulting in the loss of lives of our three friends – heroes.”
Kosovo prosecutors conducted raids on five locations associated with Radoicic on Friday and requested the seizure of a villa on Lake Ujman. Two Mercedes vehicles, one boat, and 4.8 kg (10.6 lb) of silver were confiscated.
Radoicic, who serves as the vice-president of the Serb List, the largest political party representing Serbs in Kosovo, is wanted on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of moderate Kosovo Serb leader Oliver Ivanovic in 2018. He is also under U.S. sanctions due to suspected links to organized crime.
The incident has raised international concerns about the stability of Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, almost a decade after NATO airstrikes forced Serbian security forces out of the predominantly Albanian province of Serbia.
NATO, which currently maintains 4,500 troops in Kosovo, announced on Friday that it has “authorized additional forces to address the current situation.”
(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; Additional reporting by Fatos Bytyci in Pristina; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Credit: The Star : News Feed
