Serbia asks NATO to deploy troops in Kosovo
2023.01.08 10:33
Serbia asks NATO to deploy troops in Kosovo
Budrigannews.com – After fighting between Serbs and Kosovo authorities, NATO’s KFOR mission in Kosovo turned down a request from the Serbian government to send up to 1,000 police and military personnel to Kosovo, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday.
Following the 1998-1999 war in which NATO bombed rump-Yugoslavia, which included Serbia and Montenegro, to protect Kosovo, which had an Albanian majority, Serbia’s former province of Kosovo declared independence in 2008.
In an interview with private Pink television, Serbia’s Vucic stated, “They (KFOR) replied they consider that there is no need for the return of the Serbian army to Kosovo… citing the United Nations resolution approving their mandate in Kosovo.”
In response to clashes between Kosovo authorities and Serbs in the northern region, where they are the majority, Serbia requested the deployment of troops in Kosovo last month, marking the first request from Serbia since the war’s end.
Serbia may be permitted to station its personnel at border crossings, Orthodox Christian religious sites, and areas with a Serb majority, according to the U.N. Security Council resolution.
After Kosovo police arrested an off-duty soldier who was suspected of shooting and wounding two young Serbs near the southern town of Shterpce, Vucic criticized KFOR for informing Serbia of its decision on the eve of the Christian Orthodox Christmas.
According to the police, the injuries to the 11- and 21-year-old victims were not life-threatening and they were taken to the hospital.
The incident, which has heightened tensions, was condemned by Kosovo authorities.
A few thousand Serbs peacefully demonstrated in Shterpce on Sunday against what they referred to as “violence against Serbs.”
The leader of the Serb List, the main Serb party in Kosovo, Goran Rakic, said that Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti was trying to drive Serbs out.
Rakic stated to the crowd, “His objective is to create such conditions so that Serbs leave their homes.” We must not give in, that is my message.”
Another young man was allegedly attacked and beaten up early on Saturday by a group of Albanians, according to Serbian media, while Pristina media reported that a Kosovo bus traveling through Serbia to Germany was attacked and its windscreen was broken with rocks late that same day.
The attacks were condemned by international organizations, which are expected to increase mistrust between Kosovo’s approximately 100,000 ethnic Serbs and majority Albanians. The majority of them do not recognize Kosovo’s independence, and half of them live in the north.
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