As ethnic Albanian forces crack down on the province’s Serb minority, Belgrade expects NATO to ignore its concerns
Serbia will request that its forces be deployed to Kosovo amid an Albanian-led crackdown on the province’s Serb population, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Saturday. Vucic added that he expects Kosovo’s NATO backers to reject the request.
“We will send a request to the KFOR commander to ensure the deployment of members of the army and police of the Republic of Serbia to the territory of Kosovo and Metohija,” said Vucic, referring to the NATO-led Kosovo Force mission in the province.
Under Resolution 1244 of the United Nations Security Council, Serbia has a right to send military and police personnel to Kosovo in certain situations, including in the event that the “peaceful and normal life” of its population there be threatened.
Kosovo has been occupied by NATO forces since the alliance intervened to drive Yugoslav troops out of the province in 1999. Given this occupation, and Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008, Vucic said that KFOR will likely reject his request, even though “it is an obligation for KFOR.”
Ethnic Albanian authorities in Kosovo sent hundreds of police officers into the majority-Serb northern district of Kosovska Mitrovica on Thursday, a violation of a 2013 deal between Belgrade and Pristina. Kosovo police seized 42,000 liters of wine from a Serb-run winery in Velika Hoca the same day, and sent riot police units into a kindergarten in Leposavic a day earlier.
DETAILS TO FOLLOW
