Kosovo is Being Assisted in Creating a National Army: By Whom and Why?

In an interview with Sputnik Serbia, Milovan Drecun, chairman of the Serbian parliament's Committee for Kosovo and Metohija, said NATO is behind Kosovo's push to create its own army.

Earlier this week, Kosovo President Hashim Thaci sent parliament a bill on transforming the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) into a national army.

In another development, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg spoke with Thaci and Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa via phone to express the "serious concerns of NATO allies" about Kosovo's militarization, the news website Balkan Insight reported.

"I made clear that unilateral steps such as these are unhelpful, and I urged the Kosovo authorities to remain in close contact with Serbs in Belgrade," Stoltenberg added.

NATO has approximately 4,500 troops stationed in Kosovo, which unilaterally proclaimed independence in 2008 and is recognized by over 100 UN member states. Serbia, as well as Russia, China, Israel, Iran, Spain, Greece and other countries don't recognize Kosovo's independence.

Serbian parliament members, for their part, said that they would block amendments to Kosovo' constitution that would allow the partially-recognized southeastern European country to engage in the arms build-up.

Three years ago, Kosovo made plans for a national army, but heretofore has been unable to overcome Serbian opposition within the Kosovo parliament.

In an interview with Sputnik Serbia, Milovan Drecun, chairman of the Serbian parliament's Committee for Kosovo and Metohija, specifically underscored the importance of adhering to a relevant UN resolution on the issue.

"A KFOR mission and NATO should respect UN Security Council Resolution 1244, which does not stipulate creating Kosovo's army. Meanwhile, relevant preparations have taken place for several years now, with NATO instructors training Kosovo soldiers. Actually, NATO created this army, which is why it's clear that Thaci [should] avoid making steps that would be out of line with the position of NATO and the most influential members of the alliance," Drecun said.

He added that "NATO and the US are trying to give a kind of legitimacy to Kosovo's move [to create its army], because even for them it is unacceptable that the Serbs, the second most influential national community in the province, were excluded from this process."

Drecun also said that Kosovo Serbs and Belgrade should [be engaged in] more diplomatic efforts within the UN, the EU and NATO in a bid to prevent Thaci from implementing his plans.

"It is necessary to point out to everyone that the [possible] Kosovo national army would become an additional destabilizing factor in the already destabilized situation," Drecun stressed.

Meanwhile during telephone talks with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic on Wednesday, Thaci warned Belgrade against interfering in the domestic affairs of the "sovereign state", but said that Vucic should make Serbian MPs support Pristina's push for creating the Kosovo army. 

In separate development, the leader of Kosovo Albanians told Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty that the future Kosovo army would not pose a threat to the Balkans.

Instead, he did not think twice before pointing the finger at "the Russia's bases, MiG fighter jets and military exercises in Serbia

Kosovo granted full sovereignty

Kosovo has won full sovereignty from the international community, four years after it declared independence. Serbia has dismissed the announcement as meaningless, as Kosovar Prime Minister calls the decision as a ‘historic turnaround,’ but also admits that many challenges await, including the integraton of Serbs in the north

Members of Kosovo’s Security Force march with a flag of Kosovo before the arrival of former Finnish President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari at Pristina international airport.

Western powers in the International Steering Group (ISG), which has overseen Kosovo since its 2008 unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia, have ended their supervision over the territory.

The Kosovar leadership welcomed what it called a “historic turnaround” but also recognized the challenge of trying to integrate ethnic Serbs in the north that are fiercely opposed to the notion of an independent Kosovo.

“The supervision of Kosovo is finished,” Dutch diplomat Pieter Feith, the highest international representative in Kosovo, told a press conference.

Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi called the decision a “historic turnaround” for Kosovo. “This is an international success for Kosovo which confirms that the international community respects Kosovo,” he said at a joint press conference with Feith.

Serbia, which has never accepted Kosovo’s Feb. 17, 2008, declaration of independence, dismissed the sovereignty announcement as meaningless. “For us, the question of Kosovo is not resolved until it becomes Serbia,” Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said. He dismissed as “nonsense” speculation that the European Union had set recognition of Kosovo as independent as a precondition for Serbia’s progress toward membership of the bloc.

The oversight will continue in the form of 6,000 NATO peacekeepers and over 1,000 EU police officers, prosecutors and judges tasked with tackling deep-rooted corruption and sporadic ethnic violence.

“Many challenges await Kosovo, among them, the integration of the Serbs in the north,” Agence France-Presse quoted Thaçi as saying.

Kosovo’s independence has been recognized by some 90 countries, including most EU nations, but is rejected by Belgrade, Russia and Kosovo’s own ethnic Serbs, who make up about 6 percent of the population, living mainly in the north. In a statement issued by the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama said the country of 1.7 million people had made “significant progress,” but added, “There is more work to be done, as Kosovo’s leaders now assume full responsibility for ensuring that the principles enshrined in its declaration of independence and constitution are realized for every citizen.”

Ground conditions

The ISG, made up of 23 European Union members, Turkey and the United States, had overseen Kosovo for the last four years. In July the ISG said the end of supervision would mean Kosovo would gain “full sovereignty.” However, on the ground Pristina has no effective control over Serb-majority northern Kosovo which rejects the ethnic Albanian authorities.

“To celebrate without the north, for me, is insane,” said Kosovar analyst Lumir Abdixhiku of the Riinvest research institute. “A very big part of the Kosovo territory is beyond all Kosovo institutions. Kosovo does not control an army, Kosovo does not control its judicial system, so in many aspects Kosovo does not decide for itself.”

Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek attended the meeting in Pristina on behalf of Ankara and visited Turkish citizens who live in the city.

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WHAT NEXT FOR NEIGHBOURS?

The EU hopes Kosovo and Serbia will gradually work out their dispute, lured by the prospects of membership in the bloc. There has been some progress, so Kosovo citizens can travel to Serbia with their own ID card, but not with Kosovo car plates. Serbia has agreed to accept Kosovo university diplomas if they are certified by a third party, but won’t sit at regional meeting alongside a Kosovo delegation unless there is an asterisk on the Kosovo name that refers to a note about its international position.

‘Kosovo on verge of Serb genocide’ - Serbian president

There is a danger that Kosovars are preparing to expel 40,000 Serbs from the self-proclaimed state, warns Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic in an interview with The Guardian. Only NATO forces in Kosovo curb Pristina’s ambitions, he said.

­"What if the Serbs move out? Who will accept the results of such genocide? That is one of the definitions of genocide: when you expel 40,000 people, regardless of whether they are women, men, soldiers,” questions Serbian President. “When you change the ethnic composition of the territory, that is genocide,” he said.

Nikolic said another attempt of Pristina authorities to impose its rule over Mitrovica might spark the exodus of tens of thousands of Serbs from the region. He shared confidence that Pristina would never govern Mitrovica. When asked whether this means a split-up of Kosovo, re replied that he does not know.

A Serb enclave in the northern part of Kosovo around the city of Mitrovica refuses the authority of the Kosovo capital Pristina since the day it declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Official Pristina has been appealing to the international community to help to extend its authority over the Mitrovica enclave, even with the help of KFOR (the NATO implementation force in Kosovo).

Tomislav Nikolic pointed out that the only military force in Kosovo – apart from KFOR – is the Albanian one. Therefore official Pristina would not mind using armed force to settle the “Serb question”.

The independence of mostly Albanian-populated Kosovo has been recognized by many Western states, including the US and the UK, though refused recognition by most of the UN General Assembly, including Russia and China.

The newly-elected Serbian president gained popularity as an extreme nationalist, but won the election in May on a more moderate platform. The president refuses to recognize Kosovo’s independence.

Nikolic has pointed out that since 2008 Pristina has made no concessions whatsoever in the negotiation process with Belgrade.

"What compromise has been done by Pristina up to now? None. All the talks have been on things Serbia will accept. Serbia hasn't set any conditions," Nikolic told The Guardian, saying its Pristina’s turn now to make concessions.

"It's not a compromise if Serbia is always backtracking step by step. It's not a compromise if Pristina says its independence is recognized and that it will realize its independence on our territory,” he said.

Kosovo’s PM rejected the idea that Serbs in Kosovo are endangered in any way, claiming that the majority of Kosovo Serbs live in southern part of the self-proclaimed state where they are “fully integrated and in charge of the self governance on the local level and participate in all institutions on the central level."

According to the UN, as of 2012 there are 210,000 refugees from Kosovo living in Serbia (IDPs – internally displaced persons).

Ban urges dialogue for tension in north Kosovo

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expresses concern over the tense situation in Kosovo’s north, mostly populated by Serbs. Ban urges dialogue to resolve ‘sensitive and complex issues related to northern Kosovo’

Ban Ki-moon said he was worried about rising tensions in Serb-majority northern Kosovo, during the first visit by a U.N. chief to the territory since it declared independence in 2008.

“I remain concerned about the situation in north Kosovo and the escalation of tension during the last year,” Ban told reporters at Pristina airport in the recent visit.

“It is essential that sensitive and complex issues related to the north of Kosovo be resolved through peaceful dialogue.” Over the past year tension has run high in northern Kosovo, which has a majority Serb population, Agence France-Presse reported.

The divided flashpoint city of Mitrovica has seen violent clashes as local Serbs refuse to recognize the ethnic Albanian government in Pristina and there has also been unrest on border crossings between Kosovo and Serbia where U.N. troops have stepped in to calm the situation. Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 in a move recognized by around 90 countries including the United States and most European Union members, but rejected by Belgrade.

Serbia is encouraging the some 120,000 Kosovo Serbs to defy the ethnic Albanian authorities in Pristina. Since last year Pristina and Belgrade have been engaged in an EU-brokered dialogue aimed at solving some day-to-day issues faced by residents because of Serbia’s refusal to recognize Kosovo’s independence. Ban met Kosovo president Atifete Jahjaga and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci at the airport and said beforehand that he would stress the “crucial importance” of “greater understanding,” as he has been doing throughout the region on his weeklong Balkans tour. “In particular I expect strong efforts toward normalization of the relations with Belgrade including the same serious and sincere commitment to the dialogue which I have asked from the Serbian leadership,” he told reporters on July 24.

Hailing Ban’s visit to Kosovo as “an extraordinarily important” and even “historic” event for the newly declared state, Thaci conditioned the dialogue with Belgrade on the “implementation of all the agreements that have been reached in Brussels so far.” This “has to happen in advance in order to assess the opportunity to continue the technical dialogue on good neighborly relations and normalization of the inter-state relations between” Pristina and Belgrade, he told reporters after meeting the U.N. secretary general.

Serbia asks UN to respect its sovereignty

To ease Serb fears that Ban’s trip could imply recognition of Pristina’s independence, the United Nations has stressed it is not a state visit but a visit to the U.N. mission in Kosovo.

Asked if the U.N. could play a role in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue after Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic said on July 23 that he wanted a U.N. representative at the talks from now on, but Kosovan leader Thaci dismissed the idea.

“The role of [the U.N. mission to Kosovo] UNMIK belongs to history and the past as the present and future belongs to strengthening the institutions of the republic of Kosovo,” he told reporters.

Nikolic asked Ban to respect Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo in a statement on July 23. Ban met Nikolic during his visit to the country, ahead of his Kosovo visit.

The president had “stressed that the U.N. should play a more active part in the struggle to uphold the principles of international law, territorial integrity and the sovereignty of internationally recognized nations – U.N. members - and to implement and respect resolution 1244 of the U.N. Security Council,” the statement said.

U.N. resolution 1244, adopted in June 1999 after Serb troops withdrew from Kosovo, authorizes the deployment of a military and civilian peacekeeping mission in the territory.

But while providing for substantial autonomy for Pristina, it also recognizes Belgrade’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, leaving the question of Kosovo’s final status to a later date.