A powerful explosion damaged a water channel and temporarily cut off the supply of water and electricity to Kosovo’s cities, the prime minister said on Saturday.
ADVERTISEMENTPrime Minister Albin Kurti said Friday’s explosion in Vrage, 60 kilometers north of the capital Pristina, disrupted water supplies to some towns and major power plants. This followed two other explosions in the previous days at police station buildings and local authorities in the same area in the north of the country, mostly inhabited by the ethnic Serb minority.
Kurti blamed “official Belgrade and its criminal structures headed by Milan Radoičić, with the support of Serbian institutions and the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić”.
Radoičić, a politician and wealthy businessman with ties to Serbia’s ruling populist party and Vučić, was among 45 people charged in Kosovo in connection with a shooting last year in which a Kosovo policeman was killed following an incursion by heavily armed Serbian gunmen.
Only three Serbs were arrested, and the rest are at large, including Radoičić, whom Pristina says is protected by Belgrade.
Serbian Foreign Minister Marko Đurić condemned the explosion on Friday, but also criticized Kurti’s “ethno-nationalist regime” which is quick to “point the finger at Belgrade without evidence”.
“We believe that such premature accusations are a deliberate diversion,” said Đurić. “These baseless accusations undermine efforts at constructive dialogue and only serve to escalate tensions in an already delicate situation.”
The European Union and the United States strongly condemned the explosion and demanded that the perpetrators be brought to justice.
“These violent actions have no place in a democratic society, and those responsible for these criminal attacks on the legitimate authorities of the Republic of Kosovo should be held accountable,” said the US Embassy in Pristina.
Relations between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense despite efforts by the international community to normalize them.
Kosovo was a Serbian province until a 78-day NATO bombardment in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which left around 13,000 dead, mostly ethnic Albanians, and pushed back Serbian forces. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, which Belgrade does not recognize.
Brussels and Washington are calling on both sides to implement the agreements reached by Vučić and Kurti in February and March last year. They include the obligation of Kosovo to establish an Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority. Serbia is also expected to fulfill the de facto recognition of Kosovo, which Belgrade still considers its province.
The NATO-led international peacekeeping force, known as KFOR, has increased its presence in Kosovo following last year’s tensions.
