The Serb List, which represents Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority, says it will leave the Kosovan government in protest against the expulsion of senior Serb official Marko Djuric from Kosovo on March 26. 

Serb List government ministers resigned on March 27, prompting fears of a collapse of Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj’s government should rank and file Serb List MPs follow suit and withdraw their support. 

Without the Serb List MPs, the government would still have a narrow majority, having 63 MPs in the 120-seat parliament. However, it would risk a loss of legitimacy among the ethnic-Serb minority with their interests no longer represented by Serb List ministers, and would be struggle to put together the two-thirds majority needed for some criticial pieces of legislation. 

However, speaking to journalists on March 27, Haradinaj denied that his coalition government was in danger of collapse though he urged Serb List leaders to reconisder, Reuters reported. 

The rift erupted after the director of Serbia’s Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Djuric, was arrested by Kosovan police for defying a ban on visiting the divided northern town of Mitrovica. 

Djuric, who has since been released and expelled from the country, said he was beaten while in detention and that his arrest was aimed at humiliating Serbs in Kosovo. He said he was dragged along the ground like a dog.

"They wanted to humiliate me thinking they can humiliate the Serbian people … [they] took selfies with me and pulled me down to my knees, with a gun pushed against me," Djuric told a news conference 

Police also used tear gas and stun grenades on March 26 to disperse protesters who gathered outside a meeting aimed at improving inter-ethnic relations in the town. According to some media, 32 people were injured, including five seriously, during Djuric’s arrest. 

Northern Mitrovica was extremely tense after Djuric's detention, sirens were heard in the city, and citizens were upset by the brutality of the arrest. Serbs in northern Kosovo also set up a blockade by parking trucks to block a key road that leads to capital Pristina.

However, on March 27, Kosovan media reported that the situation in Mitrovica was calm following the incidents the previous day. 

Kosovan president Hashim Thaci Kosovo said that Kosovo remains committed to the rule of law throughout its territory and will always seek to respect Kosovo's laws.

“I am sorry that yesterday's events have stirred up tensions,” Thaci said. He added that Kosovo has no alternative but to continue the dialogue with Serbia.

Highlighting the seriousness of the situation, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini has travelled to Belgrade to meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in a bid to prevent a full-blown crisis from erupting.

The incident took place just three days after the latest round of EU-brokered talks ended in Brussels without apparent progress toward a normalisation agreement. EU wants the talks, aimed at normalising relations between Serbia and its former province Kosovo, to finish by end-2019. Pristina unilaterally declared its independence in 2008.

Pristina’s failure to progress towards creating the planned Community of Serb Municipalities, part of a landmark deal between the two sides, had already raised tensions ahead of Djuric’s arrest. 

Serb List now says that it will start work to set up the community on its own, as announced by the party’s head Goran Rakic after representatives of his party held a meeting in Belgrade with Vucic and Djuric, broadcaster RTK reported.

Meanwhile Russia, which has consistently backed Belgrade on the Kosovo issue, again threw its weight behind its ally. The Russian foreign ministry issued a strongly-worded statement on March 27, saying that Russia resolutely condemns this action that is "aimed at intimidating all Kosovo Serbs and arbitrary treatment of Djuric."

“The EU and the US do not intend to consider the rights and interests of Serbs and are going to crudely suppress their striving to defend their legitimate interests,” the Russian foreign ministry said in the statement.

It further added that “it is also obvious that the Kosovars, as they were taught, follow the example of their patrons from the US and Europe that are trampling underfoot the foundations of international peace as well as acting without any regard for the law.”