Zvecan

BANJSKA - The Banjska village in the Zvecan municipality in the north of Kosovo-Metohija remains sealed off after Sunday's deadly clashes that followed an attempt by a group of Serbs to block a road in the village.

Three Serbs and one officer of the so-called Kosovo Police were killed in the clashes.

Kosovo Police announced on Friday that it arrested a Kosovo Serb, N.O., known as Nemac and/or Rus, suspected of participating in violent clashes between Serb protesters and the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, KFOR, on May 29, in the Serb-majority northern municipality of Zvecan.

Northern Kosovo was hit by fresh violence on Tuesday after police arrested Kosovo Serb Milun 'Lune' Milenkovic on suspicion of orchestrating attacks against NATO peacekeepers at the end of May, testing international efforts to de-escalate tensions.

Russia and France have unequivocally pointed to Kosovo as responsible for the tensions and clashes outside town halls in several predominantly Serb towns following Washington's crackdown on Pristina.

ZVECAN - Pristina's police stormed the building of the Zvecan municipality on Friday after firing tear gas and stun grenades at residents who had gathered outside in an attempt to stop them, a Tanjug reporter on the ground said.

Gunshots were heard in the town after clashes erupted between residents and the police.

Four people were injured in the clashes, Tanjug was told.

Kosovo authorities have been installing containers in four Serb-dominated northern municipalities to be used as polling stations on Sunday, when voters are called to cast ballots in disupted local elections that most locals are likely to boycott.

According to reports, the protests are taking place on Friday in several Serb communities in Kosovo and Metohija.

The majority of citizens are at the protest in Rudare, where they carry the flags of Serbia and slogans inviting the international community to react. Some of them read, "EU, open your eyes," "Do not starve our children," "We don't want to go to ghettos."

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - The head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija Marko Djuric on Thursday attended the opening of a new NIS petrol station in Kosovska Mitrovica despite having been banned from entering Kosovo.

It seemed so simple on paper. Under an EU-brokered agreement between Kosovo and Serbia, almost 500 former employees of the ethnic Serbian "Civil Protection Corps" were to be integrated into the relevant Kosovo state agencies.

Kosovo announced that the process of integration was complete on January 12.

ZVECAN - The body of a drowned man, believed to be a 17-year-old Kosovo Albanian, was recovered from the Ibar River near the village of Grabovac in the municipality of Zvecan in northern Kosovo-Metohija on Tuesday.

Kosovo Police Regional Operations Chief Zeljko Bojic told Tanjug that the body was found by a water rescue dive team on Tuesday.