Kosovo sentences 2 ethnic Serbs to 6 months each for attacking NATO peacekeepers

A Kosovo court on Tuesday sentenced two ethnic Serbs to six-month jail terms for attacking NATO-led peacekeepers a year ago.

But one of them will be released for time served, and the other can avoid jail time if he pays a 6,000 euro ($6,500) fine.

Local media named them as Radosh Petrovic and Dusan Obrenovic, who had attacked KFOR troops in Zvecan, a municipality in Kosovo’s north, where most of the ethnic Serb minority lives.

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In May, in a dispute over the validity of local elections in the Serbian minority-dominated part of northern Kosovo, Serbs clashed with security forces, including NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers working there, injuring 93 troops.

In September, a Kosovo police officer and three Serb gunmen were killed in a shootout after about 30 masked men opened fire on a police patrol near the Kosovo village of Banjska.

Serbia doesn’t recognize Kosovo’s formal declaration of independence in 2008. Both countries want to join the European Union, which is mediating a dialogue between the former foes. Brussels has warned both that refusal to compromise jeopardizes their chances of joining the bloc.

In 1999, a 78-day NATO bombing campaign ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo. Serbian forces were pushed out but Belgrade still considers it a Serbian province.

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The EU's brokered negotiations between Serbia and Kosovo to normalize their relations have showed slow progress, while occasional violence has fueled fears of instability in the Balkans as Russia's full-scale war rages in Ukraine.