Violence on election day
Eastern approaches 2013-12-20
Summary:
FOR a few hours after darkness had fallen on Sunday, November 3rd, the scene was dramatic. Low flying helicopters clattered overhead and armed police from the European Union’s police mission moved through the north of the divided town of Mitrovica in armoured cars. They were jeered by local Serbs who shouted “go home!” Late in the afternoon, masked men had stormed into north Mitrovica’s polling stations bringing Kosovo’s local election to a grinding halt. Did the EU’s historic deal, negotiated between Serbia and Kosovo, receive a fatal blow?
In the cold light of the following day the situation looked rather different. “The bigger picture is fantastic,” says Ilir Deda, the director of KIPRED, a think-tank. The debacle in the north, he argues, should not detract from the fact that in the rest of the Kosovo, including Serbian areas of the south, the poll has been a huge success.
Sunday’s local elections...Continue reading