BELGRADE, June 19. /TASS/. The Serbian population continues to protest in northern Kosovo, demanding the release of local residents arrested by the self-proclaimed Kosovo authorities, the Kosovo online news portal reported on Monday.
Several thousand Kosovo Serbs marched more than three kilometers from North Mitrovica to neighboring Zvecan. The march was organized by healthcare workers after one of their colleagues had been detained. The protesters, carrying Serbian flags, came to the municipal building in Zvecan to join local Serbs who have been protesting against Pristina’s actions for more than three weeks.
Hundreds of Serbs with posters reading "This Is Our Land," "Serbs Want Peace," and "Stop Violence" also gathered in front of the municipality in Leposavic.
Earlier on Monday, the Kosovo police detained Leposavic resident Uros Vukadinovic, an employee at a local television company. Like other detained Serbs, he is accused of using violence against KFOR (a NATO-led international security force in Kosovo) soldiers. The Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija slammed his detention as "a provocation of the conflict" with Serbs.
The situation in the Serb-populated Leposavic, Zubin Potok, and Zvecan municipalities in northern Kosovo and Metohija escalated on May 26 after Kosovo law enforcement officers tried to seize local administration buildings to make it possible for the new mayors of these municipalities, who were elected despite nearly the entire Serb population boycotting the elections, take their offices. On May 29, the NATO-led international security force in Kosovo (KFOR) cordoned off the administrative buildings, clashing with the protesters.
The Kosovo police detained five local Serbs on charges of using force against KFOR troops during protests on May 29. However, according to a video shot during the rally, these men were merely sitting on the ground in front of the KFOR troops.
During a phone call with US senators, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that Prime Minister of the unrecognized republic of Kosovo Albin Kurti was provoking hostilities in the very heart of Europe. He also lambasted the activity of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX).