Kosovo situation "on the verge of war," says Serbia
The ambassador of Russia to Belgrade has issued a warning that ethnic Albanian authorities are targeting Serbs with Western support.
According to Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic on Friday, the government in Pristina has taken the conflict in Kosovo to a dangerous point. Belgrade claims that the NATO-led peacekeeping force is failing to carry out its mandate and has stated that it will demand the restoration of its security personnel to the secessionist province.
According to Brnabic, Serbia has the authority to send up to 1,000 of its security forces to the region in accordance with the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 because "KFOR is not performing its commitments and Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija don't feel safe."
The Kosovo government under Albin Kurti, according to Brnabic, is consistently breaking the terms of the Kumanovo and Brussels agreements, which refer to the 1999 armistice and the 2013 technical agreement, respectively. This week alone saw a number of incidents, including the raid on a kindergarten by KFOR and the ethnic Albanian police in Leposavic.
The whole stock of a Serb family winery in Velika Hoca was destroyed, and Kosovska Mitrovica was "actually occupied" by hundreds of heavily armed special police, in addition to the attack on the kindergarten, according to Petar Petkovic, the Serbian government's commissioner for Kosovo.
Additionally, Petkovic cautioned "those in the West whose job it is to keep Kurti in line" that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was absolutely serious when he vowed Serbia will not permit another pogrom in the province.
Alexander Botsan-Kharchenko, the Russian ambassador in Belgrade, claimed that Pristina's activities amounted to a "campaign of intimidation and oppression of the Serbs" that sought to gain control of the counties with a Serb majority "with forbearance and even cooperation from the West."
According to Botsan-Kharchenko, "the West naturally doesn't care about putting the accords they mediated into effect." To them, buying time for the team they support is important.
The Mitrovica deployment was preventive, according to Kosovo police, and a part of "necessary, reasonable and authorised actions to uphold the legislation and decisions of Kosovo state bodies." Pristina stated that it has the "right to manage the security situation and uphold the rule of law throughout the entire nation."
Serbian police will "never," according to the president of the breakaway province, Vjosa Osmani, who referred to Belgrade's claims as "Serbian hegemonic delusions" and "an explicit threat of invasion."
In 1999, after bombing Serbia for 78 days, NATO forces seized control of Kosovo. Belgrade has refused to acknowledge the 2008 declaration of independence by the interim government of ethnic Albanians.
