Kossovo: Brasil, com o BRICS, não reconhece a sua independência - GZero Signal Newsletter

 GZero Signal Newsletter, Dec 27, 2022

Kosovo crisis escalates 

Serbia has placed its military on high alert amid rising tensions between ethnic Serbs and the government in neighboring Albanian-majority Kosovo. Meanwhile, ongoing protests on Wednesday prompted Kosovo to shut its main border crossing with Serbia. The center of the action is the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica, in northern Kosovo. Earlier this year, Serbs there refused to adopt Kosovo license plates and set up barricades to keep Kosovar authorities out of their areas. In recent weeks, things have gotten worse with more roadblocks and exchanges of gunfire between Mitrovica Serbs and local police. Kosovo’s government says Serbia, with backing from its friends in Moscow, is deliberately stirring up trouble in the country. Belgrade says it’s merely protecting its ethnic kin across the border. The background? Serbs consider Kosovo their historical heartland, but for centuries the region has been populated chiefly by Albanians who consider it home. In 2008, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia after surviving a brutal 1998-1999 assault by Belgrade. The US and most Western European countries recognize that independence, but a number of countries, including Brazil, China, India, and Russia, do not. The EU has, as usual, called for an elusive calm. No one in Belgrade or Mitrovica seems to be listening.