PRISTINA: One Serb was shot and six police officers injured on Wednesday when police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd.
The crowd became hostile after raids on suspected smugglers in a volatile area of Kosovo populated by the Serb minority.
Kosovo police said officers met resistance in Mitrovica as they carried out an operation to seize smuggled goods in several towns on Wednesday.
A statement said police responded when protesters in Mitrovica used hand grenades and stun grenades against officers. It said six police officers were injured.
Serbian state TV showed people running from tear gas and one vehicle set on fire. It said several people were injured.
Similar clashes were reported in the nearby town of Zvecan.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell called for an immediate end to violence in Kosovo’s north, adding that all “open issues must be addressed through the EU-facilitated dialogue” between Belgrade and Pristina.
“Unilateral and uncoordinated actions that endanger stability are unacceptable,” Borell said on his twitter account.
Belgrade and Pristina agreed to an EU-sponsored dialogue in 2013, but little progress has been made.
The Kosovo Online news portal quoted Zlatan Elek, the head of a hospital in Mitrovica, as saying one person was seriously injured.
“The injury to the shoulder blade and ribs has been caused by a firearm ... He is in intensive care and is in serious condition,” Elek was quoted as saying.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic left Belgrade to go to the central Serbian town of Raska to meet representatives of Kosovo Serbs later in the afternoon, his office said.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic urged NATO, which has 3,000 peacekeepers in Kosovo, to step in and stop the violence.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti said: “Crime and criminal groups will not be tolerated and will be fought. We will fight and stop the smuggling.”
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but around 50,000 Serbs who remain in the northern part of the country refuse to recognize the Pristina authorities and see Belgrade as their capital.
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One Serb shot, 6 policemen injured in Kosovo clashes
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One Serb shot, 6 policemen injured in Kosovo clashes
- Kosovo police said officers met resistance in Mitrovica as they carried out an operation to seize smuggled goods
- Police responded when protesters in Mitrovica used hand grenades and stun grenades against officers
New START nuclear treaty ‘was flawed’: senior US official
- The New START treaty ended at the turn of the calendar on February 5
- Russia and the US together control more than 80 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads
GENEVA: A senior US official on Friday criticized the last nuclear treaty between Russia and the United States for failing to include Beijing, speaking at the United Nations a day after the New START deal expired.
“In a nutshell, New START was flawed,” said Thomas G. DiNanno, US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, pointing out that it had not covered all nuclear weapons, “and it didn’t include China.”
Speaking to reporters in Geneva before addressing the Conference on Disarmament, he said US President Donald Trump “has been pretty clear that he wants a better agreement,” and “clarified again last night that he wants a new treaty.”
“He’s been crystal clear. He’s been consistent on it too, since his first administration,” DiNanno said.
“So we’ll see how it plays out.”
Asked if China had agreed to anything, DiNanno said: “We’re always willing to talk to them.”
China said on Thursday it would not join nuclear talks “at this stage” after the treaty’s expiry that day triggered fears of a new global arms race.
Campaigners have warned that the expiry, which ended decades of restrictions on how many warheads Russia and the United States deploy, could encourage China to expand its own arsenal.
The New START treaty ended at the turn of the calendar on February 5, after Trump did not follow up on Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin’s proposal to extend warhead limits in the agreement for one year.
Russia and the United States together control more than 80 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads, but arms agreements have been withering away.
New START, first signed in 2010, limited each side’s nuclear arsenal to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads — a reduction of nearly 30 percent from the previous limit set in 2002.
It also allowed each side to conduct on-site inspections of the other’s nuclear arsenal, although these were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and have not resumed since.
The Conference on Disarmament negotiating forum, which is comprised of 65 member states and meets in Geneva.
“In a nutshell, New START was flawed,” said Thomas G. DiNanno, US Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, pointing out that it had not covered all nuclear weapons, “and it didn’t include China.”
Speaking to reporters in Geneva before addressing the Conference on Disarmament, he said US President Donald Trump “has been pretty clear that he wants a better agreement,” and “clarified again last night that he wants a new treaty.”
“He’s been crystal clear. He’s been consistent on it too, since his first administration,” DiNanno said.
“So we’ll see how it plays out.”
Asked if China had agreed to anything, DiNanno said: “We’re always willing to talk to them.”
China said on Thursday it would not join nuclear talks “at this stage” after the treaty’s expiry that day triggered fears of a new global arms race.
Campaigners have warned that the expiry, which ended decades of restrictions on how many warheads Russia and the United States deploy, could encourage China to expand its own arsenal.
The New START treaty ended at the turn of the calendar on February 5, after Trump did not follow up on Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin’s proposal to extend warhead limits in the agreement for one year.
Russia and the United States together control more than 80 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads, but arms agreements have been withering away.
New START, first signed in 2010, limited each side’s nuclear arsenal to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads — a reduction of nearly 30 percent from the previous limit set in 2002.
It also allowed each side to conduct on-site inspections of the other’s nuclear arsenal, although these were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and have not resumed since.
The Conference on Disarmament negotiating forum, which is comprised of 65 member states and meets in Geneva.
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