The USA is now taking a stand on the Kosovo conflict and is opposed to the deployment of Serbian soldiers in the region. Belgrade is dissatisfied.
Update from December 14, 6 p.m: Is a new escalation in the Kosovo conflict imminent? In an interview with IPPEN.MEDIA, Balkan expert Konrad Clewing sees Serbian muscle flexing, including “breathtaking agitation”. Clewing speaks of a “precarious situation”, especially in northern Kosovo. There, in the border area with Serbia, Belgrade operates its own power structures and encourages the Serb minority in their attempts to defy Pristina’s authority. “The tensions are serious,” says Clewing, who works at the Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies in Regensburg. “But they do not represent a threat of war.”
First report from December 14, 12 noon: Munich – After the arrest of a Serbian ex-cop in Kosovo, tensions in the region have flared up again. Serbia is even considering sending troops to southern Kosovo, citing UN Resolution 1244 from 1999 (see info box). The United States has now commented on the dispute and opposed the transfer of troops. However, the Serbian government is extremely dissatisfied with this. Prime Minister Ana Brnabic chose sharp words.
Kosovo, with its predominantly Albanian population, declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade still considers it a breakaway. Belgrade is encouraging the Serb minority in northern Kosovo in their attempts to defy Pristina’s authority.
Serbia-Kosovo conflict: US opposes deployment of Serbian troops in Kosovo
In light of the recent escalation, the US envoy to the Western Balkans, Gabriel Escobar, has arrived in the region. In an interview with US-funded broadcaster Radio Free Europe (RFERL), he stressed that the US would “categorically” oppose the return of Serb soldiers to Kosovo. After all, as part of the NATO peacekeeping force KFOR, Pristina received resolute security guarantees from Washington.
At the same time, Escobar underscored the need to found an association of municipalities in Kosovo with a predominantly Serb population. “It’s an obligation for Serbia, it’s an obligation for Kosovo, it’s an obligation for the EU that helped the negotiation,” RFERL quoted the US envoy as saying. Gabriel therefore added: “And since we support the dialogue, it is also our obligation.”
So far, Kosovo has refused to set up an umbrella organization for the predominantly Serb communities. This is the biggest point of criticism from Serbia. According to Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, it is not possible to set up administrations on the basis of ethnic principles.
UN Resolution 1244
The resolution was passed on June 10, 1999. After the withdrawal of all “military, police and paramilitary forces from Kosovo”, “an agreed number of (Yugoslav) and Serbian military and police personnel” may return to the region. However, NATO must decide when troops might return. According to the resolution, it is about “marking and clearing minefields” and “maintaining a presence at Serbian cultural heritage sites”. It is also said that not thousands, but only hundreds of soldiers should be sent. Given the current tensions and the desire to send soldiers to Kosovo, Serbia invokes the resolution.
Since Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008, however, there has been debate as to whether the resolution is still valid in view of the new political reality. Doubts are likely to arise as to whether Serbia can invoke the resolution. The Serbian ex-Foreign Minister Vladislav Jovanovic recently emphasized to the news portal Kosovo onlinethere is no time limit for United Nations resolutions.
Serbia-Kosovo conflict: Belgrade outraged by US stance on sending Serbian troops
Nevertheless, Belgrade insists on sending troops to Kosovo. Prime Minister Ana Brnabic reacted angrily to statements by the US envoy in this regard. “I see that my friend Gabriel Escobar is another politician who stubbornly opposes the current UN Security Council resolutions,” Brnabic tweeted. With his statement, Escobar had “taken on the role of the Security Council”.
“The UN no longer needs to hold Security Council meetings,” the Prime Minister of Serbia said. The “troika” made up of Escobar, Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and the rapporteur for Kosovo in the European Parliament, Viola von Cramon (both Greens), will “decide on all global issues” from now on, according to Brnabic. Just a few days ago, she attacked Foreign Minister Baerbock.
While Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic’s comments fanned the threat of escalation, Brnabic sarcastically addressed all three in her tweets as “Great Leaders,” who ratified UN Resolution 1244 and the UN Charter, as well as the Brussels-Washington agreements on Kosovo as invalid, or would not contradict any statements from Pristina. “Under what agreement, what resolution, what principle shall we act then?” she asked.
“Shall we follow your horoscope to guess your wishes and help save world peace?” Brnabic protested. She ended her tweet series with another sarcastic comment: “I can only imagine how exhausting it must be to rule the world instead of the UN.”
Serbia-Kosovo conflict: Bundeswehr warns of deterioration “in the shortest possible time”
In the midst of all these political developments, the contingent leader of the Bundeswehr forces on the ground warned of the “permanent danger” that the situation on the ground would deteriorate “in the shortest possible time”. The dissatisfaction of many people in northern Kosovo forms a “constant basis for possible escalations and potential for violence,” said the German KFOR contingent leader Egon Frank World.
The deployment of NATO is “compulsory and indispensable for securing peace and stabilizing the situation on the ground,” emphasized Frank. He blamed “organized crime, Serbian parallel structures and the unchanged potential for inter-ethnic conflict” for the precarious situation in northern Kosovo. For example, “various Serbian actors” would use the people as “instruments of Serbian influence”. (bb)
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