NATO said it will send 700 more troops to northern Kosovo to help quell violent protests after the clashes on Monday. The United States and the European Union recently stepped up efforts to solve the dispute. Many reject the Albanian-majority territory's claim of independence. Serbs are a minority in Kosovo, but they constitute a majority in parts of the country's north bordering Serbia. On Monday, ethnic Serbs tried to storm municipal offices and fought with both Kosovo police and the peacekeepers, leaving 30 NATO soldiers and 50 rioters injured.Ī former province of Serbia, Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence is recognized by Washington and most EU nations but not by Belgrade, Russia or China. Wednesday's protest in Zvecan, 45 kilometers (28 miles) north of the capital, Pristina, ended peacefully. “The current situation is dangerous and unsustainable,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said. The leaders of France and Germany announced plans to meet top Serbia and Kosovo officials on Thursday at a summit in Moldova. Working to avert any escalation, European Union officials met with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on the sidelines of a conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. The rising tensions have fueled concern about another war like the 1998-99 fighting in Kosovo that claimed more than 10,000 lives, left more than 1 million people homeless and resulted in a NATO peacekeeping mission that has lasted nearly a quarter of a century. The crowd then spread a huge Serbian flag outside the city hall in the town of Zvecan. Hundreds of Serbs repeated at a rally their demand for the withdrawal from northern Kosovo of the special police and ethnic Albanian officials who were elected to mayor's offices in votes overwhelmingly boycotted by Serbs. ZVECAN, Kosovo - International efforts to defuse a crisis in Kosovo intensified Wednesday as ethnic Serbs held more protests in a northern town where recent clashes with NATO-led peacekeepers sparked fears of renewed conflict in the troubled region.
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