Serbia’s Vucic seeks NATO approval to send forces to north Kosovo

Serbian president mentioned he was beneath ‘no phantasm’ that NATO would conform to his request amid pressure in northern Kosovo.

Latvian troopers belonging to NATO's peacekeeping mission KFOR displays a major street in Zubin Potok, Kosovo, in September 2022 [File: Sabine Siebold/Reuters]

Serbia will ask NATO peacekeepers to let it deploy Serbian army and police to unstable northern Kosovo, though it believes there isn't any likelihood of the request being accredited, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has mentioned.

The European Union’s overseas coverage chief Josep Borrell warned final month of the potential for “escalation and violence” after emergency talks between Kosovo and Serbia did not resolve their long-running dispute over automobile licence plates utilized by the ethnic Serb minority in Kosovo.

The proposal by Belgrade to ship its forces to the previous Serbian province — and now impartial Kosovo — may escalate already seething tensions within the Balkan states.

Vucic informed a information convention on Saturday in Belgrade that he would make the request to deploy Serbian forces in a letter to the commander of NATO’s KFOR mission, the alliance’s peacekeeping drive in Kosovo.

“We'll request from the KFOR commander to make sure the deployment of military and police personnel of the Republic of Serbia to the territory of Kosovo and Metohija,” Vucic mentioned, including that he had “no illusions” that the request can be accepted.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic [File: Bernadett Szabo/Reuters]

The request to NATO can be the primary time Belgrade has sought to deploy troops in Kosovo beneath the provisions of a UN Safety Council decision which ended a 1998-1999 battle and by which NATO interceded towards Serbia to guard Albanian-majority Kosovo.

The decision mentioned Serbia may deploy as much as 1,000 army, police and customs officers to Orthodox Christian non secular websites, areas with Serb majorities and border crossings, if such a deployment is accredited by KFOR’s commander. On the time of the decision, Kosovo, which declared independence in 2008, was nonetheless recognised as a part of Serbia.

Belgrade, supported by Russia and China, has refused to recognise Kosovo’s statehood.

NATO nonetheless has about 3,700 peacekeepers stationed within the former Serbian province to forestall violence between ethnic Albanians and Serbs.

‘Destabilise the area’

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s workplace mentioned the transfer by Serbia can be “an act of aggression” and a sign of “Serbia’s tendencies to destabilise the area”.

Vucic’s remarks come after a spate of incidents and rising pressure between Kosovo authorities and Kosovo Serbs who represent a majority in northern areas of Kosovo.

On Saturday, Kosovo Serbs exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officials within the unstable north, and Kosovo’s President Vjosa Osmani introduced that native elections scheduled for December 18 within the space can be delayed till subsequent 12 months.

The gunfire broke out after Serbs blocked major roads within the northern area to protest towards the arrest of a former member of the Kosovo police who stop his publish final month together with different ethnic Serb officers.

Authorities in Pristina mentioned former policeman Dejan Pantic was arrested for allegedly attacking election fee workplaces, law enforcement officials and election officers on Tuesday.

Serb mayors in northern Kosovo municipalities, together with native judges and a few 600 law enforcement officials, resigned final month in protest over a authorities determination to exchange Belgrade-issued automobile license plates with ones issued by Pristina.

Cops take away their uniforms within the city of Zvecan, Kosovo, in November 2022 as members of Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority resigned en masse from their posts to protest the dismissal of a senior Serb police officer who didn't respect the Kosovo authorities’s determination to vary car license plates [File: Bojan Slavkovic/AP Photo]

Police mentioned the blockade on Saturday halted visitors, they usually have been pressured to shut two border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia. Later, they mentioned they got here beneath hearth in a number of places near a lake bordering Serbia. There have been no speedy experiences of accidents.

In an effort to defuse tensions, Kosovar President Osmani introduced the postponement till April 23 of native elections within the northern municipalities of Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Zvecan and Leposavic.

The EU has additionally warned each Serbia and Kosovo to resolve their disputes peacefully and to normalise relations in the event that they need to be thought of eligible for membership within the bloc.