Clashes between the Republic of Kosovo and ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo began on 25 July 2011 when the Kosovo Police crossed into the Serb-controlled municipalities of North Kosovo, to control several administrative border crossings. This was done without the Kosovo Police consulting either Serbia or Kosovo Force (KFOR)/EULEX (European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo). Though tensions between the two sides eased somewhat after the intervention of NATO's KFOR forces, they remained high amid concern from the European Union, which also blamed Kosovo for the unilateral provocation. On 19 April 2013, an agreement was signed in Brussels between representatives of Kosovo and Serbia. The 15-point document granted devolved powers to North Kosovo regarding economic development, education, healthcare and urban planning, and several mechanisms that allowed a certain autonomy in justice, policing and electoral matters.
Background
Past unrests
Kosovo–Serbia administrative border crossings
The clashes occurred because of a long stand-off over cross-border trade. Since the declaration of independence, Kosovo has been unable to export anything to or through territories controlled directly by Serbia's government. There was disruption to cross-border trade following Serbia's ban on Kosovar imports, even though many jobs on both sides depended on cross-border trade Serbia stationed troops in the northern region to enforce a boycott of goods from Kosovo proper.
Although KFOR had implemented the "vague ultimatums" to remove the barricades, Kosovar Serbs had used mountainous tracts to cross between northern Kosovo and Serbia proper in the past. At the same as the bridge dividing Mitrovica was closed from transport to the south, the daily train to southern Serbia was packed. The European Union (EU) demanded Serbia dismantle "the parallel structures" of government in Northern Kosovo. Serbia's secretary of state for Kosovo, Oliver Ivanović, said: "We don't see these as 'parallel structures', we see these as the only structures, because we do not recognise the independence of Kosovo." He also said a partition of Kosovo is out of the question, even though Serbian president Boris Tadić said he was open to the possibility. The Serbs of North Kosovo do not acknowledge or cooperate with the government of Kosovo.
Before the Kosovo Police's attempt to take over the administrative border crossings on 26 July, EULEX and Serb members of the Kosovo Police controlled them.
Goals
North Kosovo, as part of the Assembly of the Community of Municipalities of Kosovo, observed United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and defied the 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence (the Kosovo Serb enclaves had been under local control, disputed by the Kosovar Albanian Assembly) until the 2013 Brussels Agreement. The government of the Republic of Kosovo sought to install customs officials at the administrative border crossings with Central Serbia. Because Kosovar Serbs opposed the presence of Kosovar Albanians at the crossings, they erected roadblocks to make movement difficult for KFOR personnel.
Timeline
July–August 2011
On 26 July 2011, during the operation to take control of the administrative border posts, a Serb sniper killed Enver Zymberi, a member of the Kosovo Police Special Intervention Unit. Twenty-five more policemen were wounded, with at least one being treated in hospital for severe wounds. The KFOR Mi-17 helicopter that had moved the 16 Kosovo special police personnel belonged to the Croatian Army. Later that day, the same helicopter had been fired at. An hour later, 14 new Kosovo police officers and three customs officers were located in Brnjak. Though the Kosovo police later withdrew and there was a lull in tensions, some Serbian protesters returned in the evening and attacked the post.
Clashes continued on 27 July after armed Kosovar police took over two administrative border posts to enforce the writ of the central government in Pristina; ethnic Serbs burned down the administrative border post at Jarinje. The mob, which reportedly included "dozens of masked men, armed with crowbars, clubs, axes, Molotov cocktails and handheld flares," as well as rocks and other debris, were said to have attacked the NATO troops who were a part of KFOR operations. Reports also suggested the troops may have been fired upon. This was the same administrative border post that had been burned down in 2008 after Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence. Following the intervention of KFOR's NATO troops, a NATO operations officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ralf Adametz, said "the situation is now under control, but tense".