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UN worried about 'atmosphere of mutual suspicion' in Kosovo

Tensions between Pristina and Belgrade have been heightened since a police officer was killed last month in an ambush in Kosovo's restive north, allegedly by a paramilitary unit made up of Kosovo Serbs.

AP

"The current political impasse, with its impact on the security and well-being of the population, can only be overcome through compromise," head of the UN's mission Kosovo said. / Photo: AP

The United Nations expressed concern over the "atmosphere of mutual suspicion" in Kosovo, calling for "critical" de-escalatory measures between it and Serbia.

"The major events on 24th of September exacerbated an already deteriorating security environment characterized by an atmosphere of mutual suspicion... touching much of the population, especially in northern Kosovo and among Kosovo-Serb communities," Caroline Ziadeh, head of the UN's mission Kosovo, told the UN Security Council on Monday.

Animosity between Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since a war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s that drew NATO intervention against Belgrade.

Kosovo, which counts 120,000 Serbs among its 1.8 million people, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, in a move Belgrade has never recognized.

But existing tensions have been heightened in Kosovo's north for months.

Belgrade denies US claims of Serbian military mobilisation near Kosovo

Local elections boycotted

Protests flared earlier this year among Kosovo's ethnic Serbs in April after ethnic Albanian mayors were elected in four Serb-majority municipalities in extraordinary local elections boycotted by ethnic Serbs.

"The current political impasse, with its impact on the security and well-being of the population, can only be overcome through compromise," Ziadeh said.

"De-escalatory measures are critical to reduce tensions," she said, adding she hoped that recent EU- and US-organized meetings with officials in Pristina and Belgrade would help "place the dialogue back on a forward path."

Plans to establish an association of majority-Serb municipalities in Kosovo that would operate with some autonomy "should begin without delay or preconditions," Ziadeh said.