Zana Cimili and Ismet Hadjari, December 20, 2024
A blast damaged the canal near Zubin Potok in November (Armend NIMANI) (Armend NIMANI/AFP/AFP)
Weeks after an explosion ripped through a strategic canal in Kosovo, the volatile state's authorities are under mounting pressure from Serb opponents who accuse them of politicising it ahead of February elections.
The blast in late November ripped a hole through a canal providing water to hundreds of thousands of people and the cooling systems at two coal-fired power plants that generate most of Kosovo's power.
Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti blamed arch-rival Serbia for what he termed a "terrorist attack" but many in his administration have since fallen largely silent about the affair.
The Serbian government denied any links to it and announced plans to carry out its own investigation.
Following the initial outburst of accusations, Kosovo officials have offered little evidence, with many toning down their rhetoric in recent days.
"What have we learned from the investigation into the attack on the Ibar-Lepenac canal? Unfortunately, so far we have learned nothing," said Aleksandar Arsenijevic from the Serb Democracy Party, based in Kosovo's restive north.
"Everything is being kept under a veil of secrecy, and the investigation is clearly being dragged out in order to be used for political purposes. There is a serious danger that the Ibar-Lepenac case will end up in the shadow of other events."
Serbia and Kosovo have been at odds 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 blast at the canal occurred near the border with Serbia -- an area home to many of Kosovo's remaining ethnic Serbs and long a hotbed of unrest.
-Russian 'playbook' claim-
Kurti accused Serbia of taking a page out of Russia's "playbook" in Ukraine by trying to knock out power and heating in Kosovo during the cold winter months.
But having arrested 10 suspects days after the blast, Kosovo police released all but two of them due to lack of evidence, according to one of their attorneys.
Nebojsa Vlajic -- who is representing one of the remaining suspects still in custody -- said police recovered a hunting rifle and some ammunition during a raid on his client's home.
Authorities, however, found "no explosives or explosive devices like dynamite, detonators, primers, fuses", he told AFP.
"What they found cannot explode. Your television or water heater is more likely to explode than anything found in his possession."
-pre-election tension-
The blast struck just months ahead of parliamentary elections in Kosovo, with some seeing the contest as a referendum on Kurti's hardline policies targeting Serbia and their ethnic Serb allies in Kosovo.
On Tuesday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic accused Kurti of using the explosion to justify an imminent crackdown on Kosovo's Serbs and their parties ahead of the polls.
"Our people are engaged in a difficult fight for survival and political legitimacy," Vucic told a legislative session.
"Kurti's regime will accuse Serbs without any material evidence for the sabotage on the Ibar-Lepenac canal, with a clear political motive."
-'fragile' kosovo security situation-
Since entering office in 2021, Kurti has spent years dismantling a parallel system, backed by Belgrade, to provide social and political services to Kosovo's Serbs.
He has banned Serbia's currency and car licence plates, and closed its post offices and banks in Kosovo.
The policies have caused an uproar in Serbia, while also angering Kosovo's closest diplomatic partners in the United States and Europe, who have accused Kurti of undercutting fragile ethnic relations in the region.
The Kosovo government did not respond to AFP's questions about the ongoing investigation into the blast.
Analysts have said that the failure to provide more evidence or catch the perpetrators of the attack would likely add another layer of uncertainty before the elections scheduled in Kosovo for February 9.
"Its influence is undeniable," said political commentator Shpetim Gashi.
"It will shape the political debate."
Former Kosovo intelligence officer Burim Ramadani told AFP that any new information about the incident would likely "remain in the shadows", due to fears that it could spark more unrest.
"The security situation in that part of Kosovo is fragile," he said.
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