With regard to the incident in Banjska, Kosovo on in late September during which some 30 well-armed ethnic Serbs ambushed a Kosovo police patrol, the US expects a thorough investigation by Serb authorities, according to US Ambassador to Serbia Christopher Hill.
“There needs to be an investigation,” Hill said during an interview with the Serbian news site N1 Oct. 12. “They need to get to the bottom of this—what we know so far does not makes sense.
“And in so doing we need to have assurances that this will not happen again,” he added.
The ambush killed one Kosovo police officer and also resulted in the deaths of three Serbs. Kosovo authorities have since released statements indicating the seizure of heavy weapons and more than 20 SUVs. Needless to say, the incident has threatened to derail all previous efforts to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
Hill noted the damage to recent talks.
“Whatever happened in Banjska was not helpful to diplomacy,” he said. “The Serbian authorities need to realize this is a very serious matter. We need peace and security in the Balkans. What happened on September 24 is the opposite of peace and security.
“Obviously, we want a thorough investigation such that we will understand what happened,” he added.
Photo by Chatham House, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons.
