Serbian Ambassador Marko Đurić
March 26, 2018, is a day Marko Đurić, Serbia’s new ambassador to the United States, will never forget.
On that Monday, Đurić at the time chief negotiator for Serbia’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija was meeting with local Serbs in the town of North Mitrovica when he was violently detained for having crossed into Kosovar territory illegally.
A rather shocking video of the incident, which has been shared on YouTube more than 370,000 times, speaks for itself.
“Authorities were duly notified that I was coming. So was the EU,” Đurić said in a recent phone interview, insisting that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and his Kosovar counterpart, Hashim Thaçi, specifically discussed the upcoming negotiations over a dinner in Brussels three days before the confrontation took place.
February 11, 2021
BELGRADE, Serbia
A court in Kosovo’s capital of Pristina sentenced Serbian ethnic Zoran Djokic to 12 years for crimes during the Kosovo war.
The court said in a statement that Djokic, who was arrested in February 2019, was found guilty of systematic crimes against civilians in Peja / Peć, Kosovo, in March and April 1999.
It ruled that Djokic was involved in the forced eviction of Albanian civilians living in Peja / Peje / Pec and the use of psychological and physical violence by groups who used Serbian military, police and paramilitary uniforms.
Judge Arben Hoti said a large number of witnesses were heard and evidence was examined.
What’s new? Efforts to resolve the long-running dispute between Kosovo and Serbia over the former’s independence have foundered. EU-led talks brokered agreement on technical issues but have struggled to address core political questions. Washington’s mid-2020 mediation effort fell apart when Kosovo’s president had to step away because of war crimes charges.
Why does it matter? The dispute freezes Kosovo out of the UN and many other international bodies, ensures that both countries are barred from EU membership, leaves minority communities at risk and constitutes an impediment to regional security. Resolving the dispute would be a boon for stability in the Western Balkans and Europe.