Serbian tennis superstar Novak Djokovic penned the message 'Kosovo is the heart of Serbia. Stop the violence' on a television camera, the same day that more than 30 peacekeepers in a NATO-led mission were injured amid violence in his divided homeland.
Serbia and its traditional ally Russia have never recognized that independence, and tension has continued in the largely ethnic-Serbian northern part of Kosovo, where many are demanding the withdrawal of Kosovo police forces. The Kosovan police's presence in northern Kosovo has long sparked resistance — as well as the ethnic Albanian mayors they do not consider their true representatives.
France's governing body for tennis, the FFT, which puts on the open, was quoted by the Reuters news agency as saying there were"no official Grand Slam rules on what players can or cannot say. The FFT will not be making any statement or taking any stance on this matter.
"Police were forced to use legal means, such as spray, to stop the protesters and bring the situation under control." "While countering the most active fringes of the crowd, several soldiers of the Italian and Hungarian KFOR contingent were the subject of unprovoked attacks and sustained trauma wounds with fractures and burns due to the explosion of incendiary devices," the NATO force said in a statement.
KFOR said it had bolstered its presence in northern Kosovo following the latest developments and urged Belgrade and Pristina to engage in an EU-led dialogue to reduce tensions.
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