Europe | Balkan barricades

Kosovo and Serbia are on the verge of conflict again

Another violent clash is the last thing America or the EU need

A NATO soldier serving in the peacekeeping mission in Kosovo (KFOR) inspects a road barricade set up by ethnic Serbs near the town of Zubin Potok on December 11, 2022. - Hundreds of ethnic Serbs erected barricades on a road in northern Kosovo on Saturday, blocking the traffic over the two main border crossings towards Serbia, police said. Trucks, ambulance cars and agricultural machines were used as roadblocks, heightening recent tensions which included explosions, shootings and an armed attack on a police patrol which saw one ethnic Albanian police officer wounded. (Photo by Armend NIMANI / AFP) (Photo by ARMEND NIMANI/AFP via Getty Images) — Image: Getty Images

Dec 20th 2022|RUDARE

In the village of Rudare locals wander in the street and warm their hands on flaming braziers. Lorries block the road. A car disgorges a group of masked men. On December 10th barricades were erected across the north of Kosovo, where most inhabitants are ethnic Serbs. Diplomats from America and the European Union are working overtime to defuse an explosive situation. On the walls of the ethnic-Serbian part of the nearby divided city of Mitrovica, someone has been spray-painting the crest of a mysterious “Northern Brigade”. Whether it is a secret paramilitary organisation or a campaign to make people believe there is one—no one knows. “We are waiting!” says the stencil.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Balkan barricades”