For the moment, the situation has calmed down a bit, but it is very tense and threatens to degenerate, reports a correspondent of the Serbian television channel RTS. Kosovar policemen are scattered at the entrance to the Zvecan municipality building. There is a huge amount of smoke from tear gas and stun grenades outside. Armored vehicles and special police units are also located in front of the town hall. A few hours earlier, there had been a clash between the crowd and the police in Zvechani. According to the TV channel, a police car was set on fire, in response, special forces threw stun grenades. The arrival of the special forces was accompanied by the sound of sirens in Leposavić, Mitrovica, Zvecan and Zubin Potok, which the inhabitants of these areas turn on to warn of danger.
Aleksandar Arsenievich of the Serbian Survival movement said Kosovo police harassed the women, as well as himself, and sprayed tear gas directly into his eyes. “I was disoriented, they dragged me between two cars, they started hitting me,” Arsenievich said. He notes that at one point a policeman said in Albanian not to beat those carrying cameras.
The channel’s sources in Zubin Potok said the commandos intended “to hang a blue and yellow flag symbolizing Kosovo’s statehood” on the municipal building, which also houses the provisional municipal office of the government of Serbia. In Leposavich, after the sound of sirens, a large number of citizens gathered in the main square in front of the municipality, which, after the announcement of the arrival of special forces, blocked traffic on the main street from both sides of the entrance to the municipal building with trucks. The Kosovo Police said they were “helping newly elected mayors to exercise their right to work in official municipal buildings”.
Earlier it was reported that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Friday put the national armed forces into full readiness in relation to the situation in northern Kosovo.
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