コソボとセルビア、運河爆破事件めぐり非難の応酬

【ベオグラード（セルビア）ＡＦＰ＝時事】コソボ北部ズビン・ポトク近郊で先週起きた戦略的運河の爆発をめぐり、同国とセルビアとの間で非難の応酬が続いている。（写真はコソボ北部ズビン・ポトク近郊の運河で起きた爆発現場付近で警戒する警察の特殊部隊）
　ズビン・ポトクは住民の多数派をセルビア人が占め、民族間の緊張が続いている。１１月２９日に発生した爆発は数十万人に水を供給している運河と、コソボの電力の大部分を担う火力発電所２か所の冷却システムに大きな被害を与えた。コソボ側からセルビアに対する非難が上がる中、同国のアレクサンダル・ブチッチ大統領は生中継で国民に向けて演説。爆発とコソボによる非難は「セルビアに対する大規模で猛烈なハイブリッド攻撃の試み」だと主張した。
　その上で、個人名や国名を挙げることは避けつつ、「われわれはこの攻撃とは無関係だ」とし、セルビア当局は独自調査を開始したと述べた。
　一方、その数時間後に記者会見したコソボのアルビン・クルティ首相は、「ロシアの手法を模倣し、コソボやわれわれの地域全体を脅かしている」とセルビアを糾弾。「１２月にわが国の大部分から水、光、暖房、通信を奪うのが目的だった」と語った。
　さらにこの発言を受け、セルビア政府コソボ担当事務所のペタル・ペトコビッチ長官は、この爆発はコソボ北部からセルビア人を追放する口実をコソボ政府に与えるためのものだと反論した。
　コソボ当局は３０日、数人の容疑者を逮捕した。警察長官は「軍服２００着、グレネードランチャー６基、小銃２丁、拳銃１丁、マスク、ナイフ」を押収したと発表した。
　クルティ政権はここ数か月間、セルビア政府がコソボ国内のセルビア人に社会サービスや政治的支援を提供している独自システムの解体を試みており、緊張をあおっている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2024/12/02-18:54）

Kosovo and Serbia continued to sling allegations at each other on Sunday, just days after an explosion targeting a strategic canal in Kosovo sent tensions soaring between the long-time rivals.
During a press conference, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti accused Serbia of copying Russian methods to threaten Kosovo and our region in general after the explosion on Friday on the waterway near Zubin Potok, an area of Kosovo's volatile north dominated by ethnic Serbs.
Despite this, the effort is also destined to fail, as Kosovo is based on Western democratic values, added Kurti.
The blast damaged a canal supplying water to hundreds of thousands of people and cooling systems at two coal-fired power plants that generate most of Kosovo's electricity.
Kurti's comments came just hours after Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic slammed the stream of accusations from Pristina during a live address to the country.
Vucic said the explosion and Kosovo's accusations were an attempt at a large and ferocious hybrid attack on Serbia.
Belgrade's Kosovo office said the strike gave the Pristina government an excuse to crack down on ethnic Serbs in Kosovo.
We have no connection with it, Vucic said of the attack.
He stopped short of directly accusing any individual or state of orchestrating the blast and said Serbian authorities had opened their own investigation.
- Tensions -
Animosity between Serbia and Kosovo, which has an ethnic Albanian majority, has persisted since the end of a war in the late 1990s between Belgrade's forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in what was then a province of Serbia.
Serbia has never recognised Kosovo's 2008 declaration of independence.
The Kosovo prime minister said in Pristina that the attack would have had enormous consequences if it had been successful.
According to the premier, the attack had the potential to unleash major disruptions to Kosovo's power and water supply for weeks.
The goal was for most of our country in December to remain without water, in the dark, in the cold and without communication, said Kurti.
A temporary repair had saved the water supply and there had been no impact on the electricity supply.
Serbian officials have fired back, saying that the accusations from Kosovo have ulterior motives.
Petar Petkovic, director of the Serbian government's Kosovo office, said the incident had provided Kurti with a pretext to try to expel ethnic Serbs from northern Kosovo.
What happened in the village of Varage gave Kurti an alibi to continue the attacks in the north of Kosovo... and to continue the policy of expulsion of the Serb people, Petkovic told public broadcaster RTS.
The United States has condemned the canal attack.
We will support efforts to find and punish those responsible and appreciate all offers of support to that effort, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller posted on X.
Earlier on Sunday, Vucic vowed to cooperate with international bodies in the blast's wake.
- Critical infrastructure -
The Kosovo government on Sunday also announced measures to better protect critical infrastructure, including bridges, power stations and lakes, with police and security forces conducting patrols.
It was also stepping up cooperation between governing departments and international bodies to prevent similar attacks in future, it said.
Kosovo authorities arrested several suspects on Saturday.
Kosovo police chief Gazmend Hoxha said 200 military uniforms, six grenade launchers, two rifles, a pistol, masks and knives had been seized in the operation.
Fuelling tensions, Kurti's government has for months sought to dismantle a parallel system, backed by Belgrade, that provides social services and political offices for Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority.
Friday's attack followed violent incidents in northern Kosovo, including one in which hand grenades were hurled at a local council building and a police station this week.
Kosovo is to hold parliamentary elections on February 9.