PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) 鈥 Kosovo鈥檚 prime minister on Thursday complained of bias against his country from the United States and the European Union and tolerance of what he called Serbia鈥檚 authoritarian regime.
Prime Minister Albin Kurti said his Cabinet took a different stance. 鈥淲e insist that behaving well with an autocrat doesn鈥檛 make him behave better. On the contrary,鈥 he said.
The U.S. and EU envoys for the Kosovo-Serbia talks 鈥 Gabriel Escobar and Miroslav Lajcak respectively 鈥 鈥渃ome to us with demands, with requests of the other side,鈥 he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Ethnic Serbs recently clashed with Kosovo police and then the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force, leaving 30 soldiers and over 50 Serbs injured and provoking fears of a renewal of the region鈥檚 bloody conflicts.
Lars-Gunnar Wigemark, outgoing head of the EU Rule of Law Mission, known as EULEX, said that during last week鈥檚 violent confrontation 鈥渢here were very serious injuries sustained by several KFOR soldiers.鈥
鈥淭here already was violence of the worst kind of thing. Everyone 鈥 says we鈥檙e lucky that there were no casualties.鈥
After the soldiers were injured last week, NATO said it would send an to northern Kosovo.
Wigemark said the time would come when EULEX civilian police, who no longer have executive powers but only 鈥渕onitoring and mentoring Kosovo police,鈥 wouldn鈥檛 be needed in Kosovo.
鈥淏ut the conditions are not quite there yet,鈥 he said.
The European diplomat did not rule out that NATO could decide to deploy 鈥渢housands of military troops鈥 in Kosovo.
鈥淚f the situation is becoming increasingly unstable, if it starts to escalate again, of course, that is an option.鈥
The clashes grew out of an earlier confrontation after ethnic Albanian candidates who were declared the winners of local elections in northern Kosovo entered municipal buildings to take office and were blocked by Serbs. Ethnic Serbs overwhelmingly boycotted the votes.
Brussels has asked Kosovo to withdraw its special police forces from northern Kosovo, where most of the ethnic Serb minority lives, and to hold fresh elections.
In February and March, Kosovo and Serbia reached a on normalizing relations, with an 11-point plan for implementation. The process remains the focus of the talks mediated by the envoys from Washington and Brussels.
Kurti insisted the special police forces could not be 鈥渄ownsized鈥 until criminal Serb gangs either left the country or were arrested. He said there was peace in Kosovo if there were no 鈥渙rders for violence from Belgrade.鈥
Western powers should not indulge Belgrade, the root problem of the violence in the Western Balkans, Kurti said.
Kurti complained that even for the April snap election in the four northern municipalities with a Serb majority population, 鈥渋nternational mediators, European facilitators failed us."
He said they urged Kosovo to make electoral amendments but did not put pressure on the ethnic Serbs鈥 only political party to take part in the vote.
He said he would need the international community鈥檚 help to foster political pluralism in the ethnic Serb minority 鈥渇or a fair competition, for a democratic race for new mayors.鈥
鈥淲e cannot afford another process where Serbian candidates boycott it a couple of days before the elections start because that's what Belgrade orders,鈥 he said.
Wigemark, who has also served in Bosnia-Herzegovina, said it was vital that 鈥渢hese kinds of incidents are not allowed to flare up, to spill over to some sort of armed conflict.鈥
鈥淭he ongoing dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, that is the venue to sort out most of the outstanding questions," he said.
Serbia and its former province Kosovo have been at odds for decades, with Belgrade refusing to recognize Kosovo鈥檚 2008 declaration of independence. The violence near their shared border has stirred fear of a renewal of a 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo that claimed more than 10,000 lives and resulted in the KFOR peacekeeping mission.
