The Serbian army is on high alert following the tensions in Kosovo
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic put the army on high alert Monday evening, following tensions in Kosovo, the former Serbian province whose independence Belgrade refuses to recognize and where tensions have recently exacerbated between its Albanian majority and its Serb minority.
On Monday evening, Serbian Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said in a statement, “The President of Serbia… has ordered the Serbian army to be at the highest level of combat readiness, that is, at the level of readiness to use armed force”.
The Serbian Chief of Staff, General Milan Moiselovic, announced on Sunday that the President had ordered him to go to the border area with Kosovo.
“The situation there is difficult and complicated,” General Moicelovic told Pink TV on Sunday evening on his way to the town of Raska, 10 kilometers from the border with Kosovo.
He added, “The tasks assigned to the Serbian army are accurate and clear, and they will be fully implemented”.
The Chief of Staff stressed the need for the “Serbian army to be present along the administrative line,” the term used by the Serbian authorities to refer to the border line with Kosovo.
For its part, the Serbian Interior Ministry said on Monday evening that all units of the Internal Security Forces will be immediately placed under the command of the Chief of the General Staff.
In a statement issued on Monday, the Serbian Ministry of Defense said that the President of the Republic had ordered an increase in the number of Serb soldiers deployed along the border from the current 1,500 to five thousand.
The Serbian region declared its independence in 2008, but Belgrade, which refuses to recognize the young state, is urging the 120,000 Serbs living in Kosovo, especially in its northern regions, to challenge the authorities of Pristina.
On the other hand, Pristina seeks to impose its sovereignty over most of the country’s lands.
Since December 10, hundreds of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo have been blocking major roads in the northern regions in protest against the arrest of a former Serb policeman, in a move that paralyzed traffic to two border crossings with Serbia.
Just before Moiselovic headed to the border area, several Serbian media outlets broadcast a video clip that was circulating on social media, in which gunfire could be heard.
This Serbian media reported that a clash took place on Sunday evening when Kosovar forces tried to remove a roadblock to open a road.
However, the Kosovo police denied, in a post on Facebook, that its forces were involved in any armed clash.
Kosovo Interior Minister Hilal Svekla confirmed that a patrol of the KFOR peacekeeping mission in Kosovo, which operates under the command of NATO, was subjected to an armed attack.
For its part, KFOR said that it had opened an investigation into an indirect shooting incident that occurred on December 25 near a KFOR-NATO patrol, and an unknown number of gunmen were involved.
KFOR added in a statement, “There were no injuries or material damage, and we are working to verify all facts”.
Tensions flared up between Serbia and Kosovo when Pristina set December 18 as the date for local elections in municipalities with a Serb majority, but the most prominent Serbian political party announced its boycott of them.
And later, the Kosovo authorities arrested a former policeman suspected of involvement in attacks against police officers of Albanian origin, which angered the Serbs, who resorted to banditry.
In November, hundreds of Serb police officers in the Kosovo Police Service, as well as judges, prosecutors and others, went on strike to protest a decision banning Serbs living in Kosovo from putting Serbian license plates on their cars.
However, despite the suspension of the implementation of the decision, the strike of Serbian employees and policemen continued, creating a security vacuum in Kosovo.
Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic warned last week that the situation with Kosovo was on the brink of sliding into armed conflict.
