By Oliver Towfigh Nia
BERLIN (AA) – Germany called on Serbia on Friday to investigate the events that led to a deadly gun battle between Kosovar police and a pro-Serbian group in northern Kosovo.
“At the moment there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the course of events and the background (of what happened). It is important now to fully clarify, for example where the weapons came from,” German Foreign Ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said at a news conference in Berlin in response to a reporter’s question.
“It is clear that this is a very serious matter. The most important thing now is that there is a de-escalation and the clarification of the events will certainly contribute to this,” he added.
Fischer urged Serbia “to unequivocally call for a renunciation of violence,” saying it was “irritating to stylize terrorist perpetrators as victims.”
On Sept. 24, a clash broke out in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo near the Serbian border when a group of armed Serbs blocked a bridge with two trucks. A shootout erupted after the group opened fire on police, leaving one police officer dead and another injured.
A large number of security forces were dispatched to the region, and the Brnjak border crossing between Kosovo and Serbia was closed.
The area has been the scene of unrest since April, when local ethnic Serbs boycotted elections in northern Kosovo, followed by protests against the election of ethnic Albanian mayors.
Albanians are by far the largest ethnic group in Kosovo, followed by Serbs, with about half living in the north.
Amid the unrest concerning the elections, NATO peacekeepers were deployed, including a group of additional Turkish reinforcements.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 and gained recognition from many countries, including Türkiye. But Serbia has never recognized Kosovo and claims it is still part of Serbia.