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Kosovo to create army in defiance of Serbia and Nato Serbia talks up armed intervention as Kosovo approves new army
(about 3 hours later)
Kosovo’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved the formation of an army, a week after Serbia’s premier suggested the move could provoke military intervention by Belgrade. Serbia has talked up the possibility of an armed intervention in Kosovo after the parliament in Pristina overwhelmingly approved the formation of an army.
All 107 MPs present in the 120-seat assembly voted in favour of passing three draft laws to turn a lightly armed 4,000-strong security force into an army. Belgrade called the move the “most direct threat to peace and stability in the region”, while Nato’s chief said it was “ill-timed” and urged dialogue.
Ethnic Serb politicians boycotted the vote. The chair of the assembly, Kadri Veseli, hailed it as the start of a new epoch for Kosovo. The 120-seat Kosovan parliament voted with all present 107 politicians in favour of passing three draft laws to expand an existing 4,000 Kosovo Security Force and turn it into a regular lightly armed army. Ethnic-Serb community politicians boycotted the vote.
Belgrade fears the main purpose of the move is to ethnically cleanse Kosovo’s Serbian-dominated north, something strongly denied by Pristina. Serbia insists that the new army violates a UN resolution that ended Kosovo’s 1998-1999 bloody war of independence. It has warned bluntly that it may respond to the move with an armed intervention in the former province. Prime Minister Ana Brnabić said it was “one of the options on the table”.
Serbs in the north displayed Serbian flags on streets and balconies while Nato-led peacekeepers were deployed on a bridge in Mitrovica, a city divided into two administrative units.
Kosovo at 10: challenges overshadow independence celebrationsKosovo at 10: challenges overshadow independence celebrations
Serbia’s prime minister, Ana Brnabić, had suggested Belgrade would consider military intervention if Pristina went ahead with creating a regular army. On Friday, she said: “Serbia will try to continue on the path of peace and stability, the road of prosperity.” On Friday, Nikola Selakovic, an adviser to the Serbian president, said the country could send in Serbian armed forces or declare Kosovo an occupied territory. Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Serbia will seek an urgent session of the United Nations security council over the issue.
Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, is expected to visit Serbian troops on the border with Kosovo in the next three days, in an apparent act of sabre-rattling. In Serb-dominated northern Kosovo, Serb leader Goran Rakic said the new army was “unacceptable” and “showed clearly that Pristina does not want peace.” Rakic urged Serbs in Kosovo to show “restraint and not respond to provocations”.
Reflecting Washington’s position as the biggest ally of Kosovo Albanians, the US ambassador to the partially recognised state, Philip Kosnett, said the vote was “historic” for Kosovo and pledged full US support. In a sign of defiance, Serbs in the north displayed Serbian flags on streets and balconies while Nato-led peacekeepers deployed on a bridge in the ethnically divided northern town of Mitrovica.
The new army will retain the Kosovo Security Force name, butwill operate under a different mandate, with plans to have 5,000 troops and 3,000 reservists within a decade, handling crisis response and carrying out civil protection operations. Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić visited Serbian troops on the border with Kosovo on Friday in an apparent sabre-rattling move. Russia’s foreign ministry denounced the Kosovan move and said the army must be disbanded.
The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said last week that idea of creating the army went against the advice of many Nato allies and could have “serious repercussions for Kosovo’s future Euro-Atlantic integration”. Any Serbian armed intervention in Kosovo would mean a direct confrontation with thousands of Nato-led peacekeepers, including US soldiers, stationed in Kosovo since 1999.
The Kosovo war began in February 1998 and ended in June 1999 after a 78-day Nato air campaign that stopped a Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists. In 2008, Kosovo declared independence, which Serbia does not recognise. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move not recognised by Belgrade or its ally Russia. Tensions have remained high between the two sides, and Nato and the European Union, which has led years-long talks to improve ties between the Balkan neighbours, expressed regret that Kosovo decided to go ahead with the army formation.
“I reiterate my call on both Pristina and Belgrade to remain calm and refrain from any statements or actions which may lead to escalation,” Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said.
The new army will preserve its current name Kosovo Security Force but now with a new mandate. In about a decade the army expects to have 5,000 troops and 3,000 reservists, and a €98m annual budget. It will handle crisis response and civil protection operations essentially what the current paramilitary force, which is lightly armed, does. Its main tasks would be search and rescue, explosive ordnance disposal, firefighting and hazardous material disposal.
It’s not immediately clear how much more equipment or weapons the new army will have compared to the current force.
Serbia fears the move’s main purpose is to chase the Serb minority out Kosovo’s Serbian-dominated north, a claim strongly denied by Pristina.
The United States hailed Kosovo’s parliament vote to form a new army as a first step and reaffirmed “its support for the gradual transition ... to a force with a territorial defence mandate, as is Kosovo’s sovereign right.”
Kosovo’s 1998-1999 war ended with a 78-day Nato air campaign in June 1999 that stopped a bloody Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists.
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