According to a UN resolution, Belgrade can do it legally send about 1,000 soldiers
Weapons and military equipment were transported from Belgrade to the Kosovo border amid road barricades and Serbian citizens arrested by police over the weekend.
The Nizhny Novgorod corps and the 63rd Airborne Brigade are now in close proximity, local media reported. 5,000 gendarmes are on alert.
At that moment, the Serbian authorities are preparing a request to KFOR, the NATO peacekeeping force in Kosovo, on which it depends whether the military will be allowed on the territory of the country.
According to a UN resolution, Serbia has the right to send about 1,000 soldiers to Kosovo. This document, signed in 1999, officially ended the bloody repression of Kosovo’s Albanian majority, which sought independence. Then NATO bombed Belgrade to push its troops out of Kosovo territory.
In 2008, Pristina
officially announced his own independence,
recognized by Bulgaria and most EU countries. However, Belgrade does not agree with this decision. The agreement between them remains one of the main preconditions for Serbia’s accession to the EU.
Another escalation of tensions began months ago after the Kosovo government threatened Serbs with fines and confiscation if they did not replace their car registration plates with Kosovo ones. In response, several hundred police officers and mayors of cities in northern Kosovo left their posts in November. Instead of addressing the problem, however, the Kosovo authorities sent police to the north and proceeded to organize local elections without the participation of the main Serbian party, which was boycotting them.
The highlights was in conflict the arrest of Serbian policeman
on Friday, charged with assault by the Election Commission.
After his arrest, tensions escalated rapidly, with hundreds of Serbs blockading major roads. There are even reports of gunfire between citizens and law enforcement. The Serbian government has approached NATO for action to quell the conflict. The National Security Council was also convened. Prime Minister Ana Brnabic has expressed concern for the lives of Serbs in the area, saying the possibility of sending the military was being seriously considered.
In an attempt to defuse tensions, Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani announced the postponement of local elections from December 18 to April next year. However, the crisis continued to escalate. A flashbang grenade has been thrown at an armored vehicle of the European police mission EULEX.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic described the postponement of the elections as cynicism and stressed that Serbs arrested in northern Kosovo should be released immediately.
