This week, 45 new police officers from the Serbian community joined the Kosovo Police in municipalities in the northern region of Kosovo.

Following their integration into the Kosovo Police, some of the new officers received threatening messages. BIRN reported that an online campaign with lynching undertones against them has been initiated on various Serbian pages.

The situation has garnered strong reactions from the Kosovo government and foreign diplomats, who have denounced the pressure and threatening messages targeting the Serbian policemen.

As reported by BIRN, photographs and names of these young policemen from the Serbian community were published on social media platforms, accompanied by critical comments alleging that the Kosovo Police is unfairly targeting Serbian citizens.

Among other things, an article on a Serbian Telegram page stated, “It is understood that the list is not complete; we will publish it so that the whole public opinion will understand who the others are…”

Kosovo PM Albin Kurti has deemed the campaign against the young Serbian policemen as unacceptable.

“The campaign on social media and platforms that aims to threaten and intimidate them is unacceptable to us, even though I am convinced that they are resilient,” he stated during a press conference in Prishtina on Wednesday, following a weekly government meeting.

Kurti called for the international community to react to the situation and address Belgrade’s continuous pressure on the Serbian community, which aims to hinder their full integration into Kosovo’s institutional life.

The PM assured that the institutions of Kosovo will provide full support to the new police officers.

Giovanni Pietro Barbano, the head of the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, expressed concern over the threatening messages directed at these young policemen.

“I am very concerned about media reports regarding threatening messages against newly deployed Kosovo Police Officers from non-majority communities. Any kind of intimidation is unacceptable, and I stress the importance that the Kosovo Police reflects and represents the entire Kosovo population,” he wrote on Twitter.

US Ambassador Jeffrey Hovenier also condemned the intimidation.

“I fully share these concerns. Threats and intimidation against individuals serving for the benefit of all of Kosovo’s citizens are completely unacceptable. As I’ve said before, the Kosovo Police exists to serve all communities in Kosovo, and its makeup should reflect Kosovo’s diversity,” he wrote on Twitter.

The German Ambassador in Kosovo, Joern Rohde, demanded that the campaign against the police be stopped.

“Fully agree. This intimidation campaign is absolutely disconcerting. It should stop immediately. The new policemen from Kosovo’s Bosniak, Roma, Serbian, and Turkish minority communities deserve all the support, especially from the municipalities and the citizens where they are deployed,” he wrote on Twitter.

This week, 72 new policemen from non-majority communities began their work in North Mitrovica, Leposavic, Zubin Potok, and Zvecan. The Kosovo Police confirmed that 45 of them are from the Serbian community, 16 from the Bosnian community, 8 from the Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities, and three from the Turkish community.

Veton Elshani, the deputy director of the Kosovo Police in North Mitrovica, informed BIRN that the officials have been assigned to work at the police stations in the four municipalities with a Serbian majority.

In November 2022, Serbs resigned from their positions in state institutions in four Serb-majority northern municipalities of Kosovo, claiming that EU-mediated agreements between Serbia and Kosovo in Brussels were being breached.

Two weeks ago, an agreement was reached by Deputy Prime Minister and Kosovo chief negotiator Besnik Bislimi with the EU emissary for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, Miroslav Lajčak, in Bratislava, Slovakia, to ease the situation in the north of Kosovo.

The agreement entails an immediate reduction of the police presence in and around municipal buildings and the promotion of early local elections.

Tensions in the north of Kosovo escalated on May 26, 2023, when the new mayors of Zvecan, Leposavic, and Zubin Potok entered the municipal buildings with the assistance of the police. In response, citizens from the Serbian community organized protests.

On May 29, 30 KFOR members were injured during a clash between protesters and KFOR members.