The EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo, EULEX has sent a specialized team of six police advisers to police stations in northern Kosovo, who will advise law enforcement on how best to comply of their activities in situations of preventing and fighting crime, as well as guaranteeing security, also monitoring the fulfillment of police obligations in terms of respecting human rights.

This team will stay in the north initially for a period of two months, but there is a possibility of extending this period until the EU mission is convinced that it has established a long-term police advisory capacity in the north.

Since the end of May, the situation has been tense in the four Serb-majority municipalities in northern Kosovo, as local Serbs oppose the new Albanian mayors who emerged from the April elections that were boycotted by the Serbs.

Tensions reached their peak when the Kosovo Police was attacked by an armed group of Serbs in the village of Banjské in Zveçan in the north of the country.

/k.s/