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Kosovo's president Vjosa Osmani has accused Serbia and its President Aleksandar Vucic of being behind a shootout between armed men and Kosovar police in the north of the country last weekend, in the worst violence in the restive area in years.
- Serbia's president has denied allegations he was behind a shootout in Kosovo
- Three people died in the incident and three people have been charged
- Kosovo's president has accused Serbia of sending insurgents to cause unrest
Kosovo authorities said police fought around 30 heavily-armed Serbs who stormed the quiet village of Banjska on Sunday and barricaded themselves into a Serbian Orthodox monastery. Three attackers and one police officer were killed.
Three men have so far been charged with participating in the attack.
The gun battle has prompted new international concern over stability in Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority and declared independence from Serbia in 2008 after a guerrilla uprising and a 1999 NATO intervention.
"Kosovo is under attack," Ms Osmani said.
"The (armed) group simply exercised the intentions and the motives of Serbia as a country and Vucic as the leader."
Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić has denied claims that Serbia was involved in the clash, saying the gunmen were local Kosovo Serbs “who no longer want to withstand the terror” of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian authorities.
Serbia, which has not recognised its former province's independence, blames Kosovo for precipitating violence by mistreating ethnic Serb residents, a charge Kosovo denies.
Ms Osmani said Serbia still has territorial claims against Kosovo and was acting to accomplish a 'Crimea model' by creating tensions in Kosovo's north where some 50,000 local Serbs still see Belgrade as their capital and reject rule from Pristina.
"What I would say to President Vucic is stop messing with Kosovo. Kosovo is going to defend its freedom, its independence and its sovereignty at any price," she said.
"They are trying to carry out a Crimea model in the Republic of Kosovo but we will absolutely not let that happen... will defend every inch of Kosovo territory."
Russia seized and annexed Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014, and Kosovo authorities fear Serbia could carve away the northern part of Kosovo.
There are fears in the West that Russia, acting through Serbia, may want to destabilise the Balkans and shift some of the attention from Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Russia has voiced support for Serbia over the clashes, blaming the West for allegedly failing to protect Kosovo Serbs.
Kosovo and Serbia have been in talks for more than a decade on normalising relations, in a process of mediation led by the European Union.
Early this year they agreed on a deal proposed by the EU, but since then they have not been able to agree on how to implement it.
Ms Osmani said talks between the two cannot continue as before.
"It is absolutely not business as usual any longer," she said.
"We've been victims of an aggression by Serbia and everyone should treat it as such."
Reuters