For Pristina, it was a kidnapping by Serbian ‘paramilitary forces’ deep inside Kosovo's territory. For Belgrade, a legitimate arrest operation targeting those who had strayed beyond their jurisdiction into central Serbia. 

The disputed claims of where exactly three Kosovo border police were detained constitutes the latest in a series of incidents which have drawn sharp reactions from the international community and repeated calls for Pristina to de-escalate. 

These latest developments can be traced back to the boycott by Kosovo Serbs of elections in the four northern municipalities, necessitated by their own resignations. Pristina’s attempts to install the newly elected mayors in municipal premises sparked a vociferous response. Violent attacks on Nato peacekeepers several weeks back left some forty injured, plus a number of citizens and journalists. Though subsequent protests have been peaceful, there remains a profound sense of unease.  

The incumbent government of Vetëvendosje and Prime Minister Albin Kurti – a nationalist politician with leftish leanings, who has on several occasions vaunted the prospect of a merger of Kosovo and neighbouring Albania – has repeatedly ignored joint calls by the EU and US to de-escalate the situation.

Special Operations Units of the Kosovo Police, deployed to the north for some eighteen months now, continue to antagonise the local population. There have been numerous reports of verbal harassment and physical assault. Their withdrawal has been listed as a key condition by the Kosovo Serbs but has been ignored.  

Kurti’s stance has prompted a stern response from the EU. A list of restrictive measures include both the symbolic and the tangible. Kosovo officials will no longer be invited to EU gatherings, whilst there will be fewer high-profile visits. Several projects financed through the Investment Fund for the Western Balkans will be suspended. Kosovo’s potential membership of the Council of Europe has been jeopardised, though it seems the recently granted liberalisation of visas is not at risk.  

The extent of European unity will come as something of a surprise, particularly in Brussels. Unanimity is usually impossible to find, at least not without diluting the steps to be taken. Miroslav Lajcak, the EU’s special representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue, has effectively marshalled EU capitals into conformity with a stance that the US has eagerly echoed. 

For its part, Washington cancelled Kosovo’s participation in Nato’s flagship exercise, Defender Europe 23, a profound development given the Alliance’s importance for Kosovo’s security. Relations with the US matter domestically. Even if Kosovars largely support Kurti’s approach to the north, they deplore the loss of US backing. “Thank you USA, you are my best friend, you are the peacekeeper, you are the legend,” goes the famous YouTube video capturing the sentiment of those filled with eternal thanks for the US-led liberation in 1999. 

Pristina finds itself under unprecedented pressure from the international community, not seen in the fifteen years since it declared independence. The EU has tended to turn a blind eye to other destabilising steps in the Western Balkans over the course of the last decade. Those who’ve called for sanctions against the likes of Milorad Dodik, who regularly calls for the secession of Republika Srpska from Bosnia & Herzegovina, have been left stunned. 

The damaging nature of Kurti’s actions are such that Ramush Haradinaj, former Kosovo prime minister and leader of the AAK, claimed that Kurti may well be a “spy of Serbia for threatening Kosovo's alliance with the USA and Nato”. Haradinaj has urged MPs to support a vote of no confidence and the establishment of a government of national emergency. 

It is indeed somewhat amusing to read Kurti’s words back when he and Vetëvendosje were in opposition and trying to prevent steps they felt had been imposed by the international community. “Our action in Parliament and on the squares is reaching the international media and international decision-makers,” he once said about the release of tear gas in Kosovo’s National Assembly and other misdeeds. Deep down, he must be proud of the resistance of Kosovo Serbs. 

Kurti has vehemently argued that Kosovo is a democracy, in contrast to what he calls the Russian-backed and autocratic regime in Belgrade, and is therefore entitled to Western support. And yet, under the cover of crisis, the Kurti government moved to shut down the leading critical media outlet, Klan Kosova, suspending its business certificate on somewhat spurious grounds. 

Repeated claims by Pristina to be imposing the rule of law, meanwhile, are undermined by the illegal land expropriations undertaken in the north, often to construct new and expanded police bases. Due process and legal procedures have been widely ignored. Owners of said land often learnt about its expropriation once work had already commenced.     

The list of grievances amongst the Kosovo Serb community in the north continue to mount. Many fear that they are slated for arrest, either for participating in protests or for being on the barricades last December. Pristina uses the phrase ‘anti-constitutional’ activities as a vague pretext for potential further apprehensions. An uneasy mood pervades in a community made nervous by persistent unilateral actions by Pristina. 

Having withdrawn from Kosovo’s institutions in the north last autumn – including the police, judiciary and local government – Kosovo Serbs have remained in limbo. A key condition for their return is the creation of the Association/Community of Serb-Majority Municipalities, which was one of the key elements of the Brussels Agreement but has been vehemently resisted by Pristina. Repeated calls from the international community have fallen on deaf ears. 

There are ever more voices of discontent towards Srpska Lista, which has monopolised the Kosovo Serb vote for almost a decade. Contrary to some understandings, these are not voices who are keen to integrate, only to find themselves prevented by Belgrade. On the contrary, they are fundamentally opposed to integration and have no intention of being a part of Pristina’s institutions. Whether these voices can secure electoral support, however, is an entirely different question. 

The agreement on the path to normalisation between Kosovo and Serbia was supposed to transform the dynamics between the two. Instead, their relations remain mired in crises. Without a political solution pertaining to the Association/Community, the Special Operations Units, and new elections, there will continue to be tensions that could escalate at any moment. EU facilitation remains more vital than ever.