Serbs in Kosovo mourn those killed in monastery shootout

Following the deadliest violence in years in the contested area, the biggest political party representing Serbs in northern Kosovo on Tuesday declared three days of mourning for those slain in a shooting with Kosovo police in a monastery.

Around 30 heavily armed Serbs, according to Kosovo’s officials, assaulted Banjska on Sunday, beating police and barricading themselves inside the Serbian Orthodox monastery. After three assailants and one police officer were slain, police took back control of the monastery late on Sunday.

The gunbattle 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.

Belgrade has never acknowledged the former province’s independence. Around 50,000 ethnic Serbs in the north reject rule from Pristina.

No organisation has stepped forward to take credit for the assault or to provide an explanation for the gunmen’s motivations.

Serbia claims that Kosovo is to responsible for mistreating locals in the Serb-majority area, while Kosovo has accused Serbia of supporting the armed terrorists.

Flags will be flown at half-staff and all entertainment cancelled from Tuesday through Thursday, according to the Serb List party.

Without directly endorsing the shooters or their complaints, Serbia proclaimed Wednesday a day of sorrow “due to the tragic events”.

“Serbia has no problem to say it condemns the murder of an (Kosovo) Albanian policeman, but we cannot remain mute, deaf and blind to the persecution and killing of Serbian people in Kosovo,” Defence Minister Milos Vucevic said in Belgrade after meeting his Norwegian counterpart Bjoern Arild Gram.

Tuesday in Belgrade, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic discussed the event with the ambassadors of the US, EU, UK, France, Germany, and Italy. He said that in place of (Kosovo Prime Minister Albin) Kurti’s police, he had demanded that the international KFOR peacekeeping force “take care of all security issues in the north of Kosovo.”

In a hotel in the country’s primarily Serb north, Kosovo police said they detained two more suspects on Tuesday and seized a number of weapons, including assault rifles and a heavy machine gun.

Additionally, on Monday, Banjska police searched homes and revealed guns and equipment they claimed to have found.

A police drone video that purported to show a number of armed men sleeping within the monastery was also released.

One of them, according to the report, was Milan Radojcic, a politician and leader of the Serb List party from Kosovo.

For comments on the video, neither Radojcic nor the party could be reached by phone or email. Other than the proclamation of mourning, the party has not commented on the tragedy.

Reuters was unable to independently confirm the individual in the video’s identification. The Banjska Monastery was the confirmed location, however Reuters was unable to independently corroborate the date the video was shot.

Before Serbs from the north and those who supported Belgrade boycotted Kosovo’s institutions about a year ago, Serb List dominated the Serb representation in the parliament. It has close ties to Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party.

Tuesday’s session was held in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, and two Serbs who were taken prisoner during the gunfight attended.

Dusan Maksimovic, a suspect in the shooting, is represented by Dejan A. Vasic, who stated he intends to file an appeal against his client’s 30-day imprisonment.

According to the court, a third alleged shooter who was hurt had already gone before a judge while receiving medical attention. There, he was accused of taking part in a terrorist assault and was given a one-month remand.

(With agency inputs)