A powerful explosion damaged a water canal and temporarily cut water and power supplies to Kosovo’s cities, the prime minister said on Saturday, blaming groups supported by Serbia. At least eight people were arrested.
Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti said the blast on Friday in Vrage, 60km north of the capital, Pristina, disrupted the supply of water to some cities and major power plants. It followed two other explosions in previous days on buildings of a police station and local authorities in the same area in the north of the country, mostly populated by the ethnic Serb minority.
About 15 to 20kg of explosives were used to damage the critical infrastructure, Kosovar police chief Gazmend Hoxha said.
Photo: REUTERS
Kurti blamed “official Belgrade and its criminal structures led by Milan Radoicic, supported by Serb institutions and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.”
Radoicic, a politician and wealthy businessman with ties to Serbia’s ruling party and Vucic, was among 45 people charged in Kosovo in connection with a gunfight last year in which a Kosovar police officer was killed following an incursion by heavily armed Serb gunmen.
Only three Serbs have been arrested and the others are at large, including Radoicic, who Pristina said is protected by Belgrade.
Kosovar police have detained eight people suspected of being part of the attack, Kosovar Minister of Internal Affairs Xhelal Svecla said.
A big cache of weaponry, ammunition, military and police uniforms, cash and other items were confiscated at 10 locations in the north.
Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs Marko Duric condemned Friday’s explosion, but also criticized Kurti’s “ethnonationalist regime” rushing “to point fingers at Belgrade without evidence.”
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani, who canceled a trip to Brunei because of the incidents, met with diplomatic representatives of Western powers and the EU to express her concern that such “attacks aim not only at destabilizing Kosovo, but also represent a serious threat to the stability of the whole region.”
Kosovo-Serbia relations remain tense despite efforts by the international community to normalize them.
Brussels and Washington are urging both sides to implement agreements that Vucic and Kurti reached in February and March last year.
They include a commitment by Kosovo to establish an Association of the Serb Majority Municipalities. Serbia is also expected to deliver on the de facto recognition of Kosovo, which Belgrade still considers its province.
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