Oliver Ivanovic, Moderate Kosovo Serb Leader, Is Killed

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RIJEKA, Croatia — A prominent Serb politician in Kosovo, a leading voice for ethnic coexistence there, was shot and killed on Tuesday, heightening tensions between Kosovo and Serbia, which has refused to recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Oliver Ivanovic, 64, the leader of the Citizens’ Initiative Party, was shot outside the party’s offices in Mitrovica, a northern city that is sharply divided along ethnic lines. Though seen as a moderate in Serb politics, Mr. Ivanovic also faced war crimes charges, which he and his allies described as politically motivated.

In a televised news conference, Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, insisted that his government had no role in what he called “a terrorist act,” and suggested that the killing was part of a campaign by Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority to take control of the country’s remaining Serb enclaves.

He called a meeting of his security council, and warned the government of Kosovo not to use the assassination “as a pretext to send their boots on the ground in the north.”

But an opposition leader, Sasa Jankovic, noted on Tuesday that Mr. Vucic’s government, which he described as repressive, had been harshly critical of Mr. Ivanovic in the past. “Whoever did this — and we do not know who it is — works against the interests of the Serbs and of Serbia and the Albanian people and everyone else,” he said.

After separating from Serbia with the crucial military support, including a heavy bombing campaign, of the United States and NATO, Kosovo formally declared independence in 2008, but Serbia has refused to recognize it as a separate nation. Five of the European Union’s 28 member states also do not recognize Kosovo as a nation.

After the assassination, a Serb delegation walked out of talks on Tuesday on normalizing relations between Kosovo and Serbia. Kosovo broke away from Serbia, fighting a war for independence in 1998 and 1999, and formally declaring independence in 2008, but Serbia has refused to recognize it as a separate nation.

The Kosovo government condemned the killing, which it said “challenges the rule of law and any attempt to establish order throughout the entire territory of Kosovo.”

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In a statement, Hashim Thaci, president of Kosovo, said, “I call on the law enforcement authorities to expose the circumstances of his assassination as soon as possible and the perpetrators of the crime come to justice.”

Mr. Ivanovic had no shortage of enemies, and someone set fire to his car outside his house in July 2017, after which some of his allies urged him to leave the country. In addition to being at the center of political tensions, he was an outspoken critic of Kosovo’s drug gangs and the authorities who he said allowed traffickers to operate with impunity.

His is one of several ethnic Serb parties in Kosovo, but unlike its major rivals, it is less subservient to Belgrade, and willing to recognize and work with the ethnic Albanian authorities. Under a previous administration in Belgrade, he served as chief of Serbia’s Ministry for Kosovo.

“He had a small party but a huge reputation,” said Dusan Reljic, a southeast Europe specialist at German Institute for International Affairs and Security, who knew Mr. Ivanovic. “If you were looking for someone who could build bridges, it would be him, which is why neither the government in Pristina nor the government in Belgrade liked him.”

“Oliver knew he wasn’t safe,” Mr. Reljic added.

A doctor who treated Mr. Ivanovic said he had been shot five times in the upper body. The police responded by blockading the Serb-majority northern part of the city as they searched for the gunman.

In 2014, a special European Union court set up to deal with Kosovo charged Mr. Ivanovic with involvement in the expulsion and killing of Albanian civilians. He was convicted in 2016 on one count, but an appeals court overturned that verdict last year and ordered a new trial.

Tensions have escalated in the region as Kosovo prepares to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its declaration of independence. Last week, the State Department warned Americans to exercise caution if traveling to the country, citing an increased threat of terrorism, particularly in Serb-dominated enclaves, including northern Mitrovica.

Mitrovica remains an enduring source of tensions between the minority Serbs and Kosovars. When the war ended, NATO troops under French command allowed the city to be partitioned at the Ibar River, with the Serbs controlling the northern sector and maintaining close ties to Belgrade.

Mr. Ivanovic, who was married and had three children, was one of the main leaders of the Serbs in northern Mitrovica but later came to support better relations with the Kosovars.

Marko Duric, the director of Serbia’s Ministry for Kosovo, said that whoever killed Mr. Ivanovic had aimed to destabilize the region. “The goal is to provoke chaos and to push Serbs in Kosovo and Serbia into the hell of fighting,” he told reporters in Brussels.