News 360 11 December 2022 - by Daniel Stewart
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced Saturday that he will ask NATO to deploy the Serbian army and police in Kosovo amid a spike in tension in recent hours at border crossings with Serbia and a new flashpoint in the dispute that has separated Belgrade and Pristina since Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008.
This request, without any precedent since the end of the war in Kosovo more than 20 years ago, culminates for the moment an afternoon that began with the postponement of local elections in the Serb-majority areas of northern Kosovo and ended with the erection of Kosovo Serb barricades that provoked the intervention of the Kosovar police at the border.
Although the president had no "illusions" about the possibility of NATO accepting such a deployment at such a critical moment, Vucic defended that Serbia has the right to make this request and criticized the room for maneuver enjoyed by the Kosovar authorities, who have declared their intention to apply this very month to join the European Union, as he made known in a speech reported by the B92 channel.
If the request is confirmed, it would be the first time Belgrade has applied to deploy in Kosovo, under the provisions of a UN Security Council resolution that ended a 1998-1999 war in which NATO eventually stepped in to protect Kosovo, which has an Albanian majority.
Under the resolution cited by Vucic, Serbia can deploy up to 1,000 military, police and customs personnel to Orthodox Christian religious sites, Serb-majority areas and border crossings, if such a deployment is approved by NATO's mission commander, KFOR.
"We have no illusions that they will agree; they will find countless reasons to tell us that KFOR is in control there, even though they have no right to do so. So what we will do is look for new legal avenues," he said.
Vucic informed that the Serbian government will finalize its course of action in this regard on Monday or next Tuesday, at the latest, and added that he has also sent a letter to the heads of state and government of the European Union countries (Slovakia, Greece, Spain, Romania and Cyprus) that do not recognize Kosovo's independence to do everything possible to block the Kosovar accession efforts.
"They are our friends and I hope that the letter means something," he said about a letter in which, he explained, he thanked them for "supporting Serbia in its territorial integrity, which guarantees peace in the region" and appreciated "joint struggle of these countries for the respect of international law and the UN Charter as the only principle".
BLOCKADE, ELECTORAL DELAY AND SPORATIC FIGHTING
In fact, the President has finally clarified the comments made on Friday by the Serbian Prime Minister, Ana Brnabic, in which she already advanced the possibility of this request.
"The president will soon give information on this because it is clear that KFOR is not doing its job well and because Kosovo Serbs do not feel protected and their lives, including the lives of young children, are under threat," Brnabic denounced.
Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani described these words as an "open threat of police and military aggression" before postponing local elections in northern Kosovo, originally scheduled for December 18, to April 23, given the chaotic situation in the area.
Faced with the inability to reach an agreement on the so-called "license plate crisis" -- a long series of confrontations between the Serbian and Kosovar authorities over the vehicle identification plates, issued by Serbia, and whose competencies Kosovo intended to assume until an agreement reached at the end of November through EU mediation -- Kosovar Serb mayors, judges and police officers decided to resign from their functions and open an institutional vacuum in the area.
On November 15, the Srpska Lista (Serb List) party in Kosovo declared its total and complete renunciation of the local elections, where the election of the mayors of four Serb-majority municipalities was scheduled: North Mitrovica, Zubin Potok, Leposavic and Zvecan, all governed by mayors of this formation, who had resigned five days earlier.
After several nights of violent incidents that have left at least one Kosovo Police officer wounded by alleged Serb gunfire, the situation finally worsened with the arrest of a Kosovo Serb police officer, part of the resigned officers, which provoked the uprising of the population in the area with barricades that have paralyzed the transit through the territory, hence the intervention of the Kosovo Police.
