https://sputnikglobe.com/20221227/serbias-armed-forces-put-on-combat-alert-amid-kosovo-tensions-1105819281.html
Serbia’s Armed Forces Put on Combat Alert Amid Kosovo Tensions
Serbia’s Armed Forces Put on Combat Alert Amid Kosovo Tensions
Sputnik International
Tensions in Kosovo began to rise this summer after Pristina declared Serbian-issued license plates void and took other discriminatory measures against ethnic Serbs living in the breakaway’s northern areas.
2022-12-27T10:55+0000
2022-12-27T10:55+0000
2022-12-27T13:26+0000
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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has ordered the country’s military to be put on “the highest level of combat readiness” amid the tense security situation in Kosovo, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Milos Vucevic has announced.Vucevic said the step was designed to protect “the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia, protecting all citizens of Serbia, and preventing terrorism and terror against Serbs wherever they live.”Earlier, Serbian media reported that authorities in the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo had put their security forces in a state of full readiness as well.Separately, in an interview with local media, Vucevic said that the alert status was a response to plans by the Kosovo government to attack Serbs and try to dismantle makeshift barricades erected by ethnic Serb residents of Kosovo in response to Pristina’s arrests of two Serb former police officers and a third man on trumped up “terrorism” and “war crimes” charges. Protesters say the barricades, which began popping up this month, will stay up until the men are released, and until Kosovo’s militarized police forces deployed in the area are withdrawn.Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Bratislav Gacic has indicated that the president had ordered the personnel attached to his ministry to be put on full combat readiness as well.Separately on Tuesday, Serbian director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petar Petkovic warned that Belgrade was “ready to preserve the peace, but also to respond to any kind of threat coming from Pristina” against Serbs.The rising tensions in Kosovo, which began this summer over a dispute on vehicle license plate registration, have escalated dramatically in recent weeks with the deployment of heavily armed Kosovar police units in northern areas of the region populated by Serbs. A series of suspected provocations by Pristina have served to ramp up tensions further.For instance, Orthodox Patriarch of Serbia Porfirio was barred from entering Kosovo on Monday, getting turned back at the administrative crossing in Merdare while attempting to travel to the medieval Serbian Orthodox Monastery in Pec, northwestern Kosovo on the eve of the Christmas holiday, which Serbs mark on January 7.Vucevic slammed the silence of the international community to Serbs’ plight, including what he characterized as the threat to ethnically cleanse “even the few Serbs left on our centuries-old territory,” and said that Belgrade’s calls for problems to be solved through dialog have gone “unanswered.” The official lamented that the Serbs seem to be the only nation in Europe without the right and freedom to preserve their centuries-old hearths.Kosovo, which has enjoyed de-facto independence as a US, EU and NATO protectorate since 2008, has a special historical significance to Serbs, with the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, in which Serbian Prince Lazar managed to hold off a numerically superior Ottoman army, helping Serbia’s kingdoms temporarily avoid becoming Ottoman vassals, and playing a major role in the formation of European nation’s modern identity, including stubborn defiance in the face of overwhelming odds.Kosovo formally applied for European Union membership on December 15. Subsequently, Serbia’s Defense Ministry formally requested permission from NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) mission to allow Serbian forces to enter Kosovo to help preserve order on the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, which allows for the deployment of up to a thousand Serbian troops and police in the region.Belgrade and over 80 UN member states, including Russia, refuse to recognize Kosovo’s self-proclaimed independence status, while the US and most of its allies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East have recognized Pristina’s independence.The conflict in Kosovo has its roots in the dramatic collapse of living standards and social cohesion which accompanied the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but escalated into a military struggle in the late 1990s, after Albanian militants calling themselves the ‘Kosovo Liberation Army’ began a guerilla campaign against Serbian police and troops. NATO intervened in the crisis in the spring of 1999, dropping thousands of bombs on the rump state of Yugoslavia, and ultimately setting up the largest US base in the Balkans, Camp Bondsteel, in southeastern Kosovo.The unilateral Western recognition of Kosovo’s independence escalated the breakdown of the post-WWII international order, and set the stage for many of the international conflicts that rage today. In 2008, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that “a unilateral declaration of independence and support [for independence of Kosovo] by members of the international community would be illegal, ill-conceived and immoral.”
https://sputnikglobe.com/20221226/russian-foreign-ministry-says-western-inaction-on-kosovo-breaches-un-resolution-1105803563.html
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Serbia’s Armed Forces Put on Combat Alert Amid Kosovo Tensions
10:55 GMT 27.12.2022 (Updated: 13:26 GMT 27.12.2022) The alert comes after months of escalation by the Western-backed self-proclaimed government in Kosovo. Tensions began to rise this summer after Pristina declared Serbian-issued license plates void and took other discriminatory measures against ethnic Serbs living in the breakaway’s northern areas.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has ordered the country’s military to be put on “the highest level of combat readiness” amid the tense security situation in Kosovo, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Milos Vucevic has announced.
“Serbian President @avucic as the commander in chief tonight ordered that the Serbian Armed Forces be at the highest level of combat readiness, i.e. preparedness up to the level of the use of armed force, the armed potential of the Serbian Armed Forces,” Vucevic
tweeted late Monday.
Vucevic said the step was designed to protect “the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Serbia, protecting all citizens of Serbia, and preventing terrorism and terror against Serbs wherever they live.”
Earlier, Serbian media reported that authorities in the self-proclaimed Republic of Kosovo had put their security forces in a state of full readiness as well.
Separately, in an interview with local media, Vucevic
said that the alert status was a response to plans by the Kosovo government to attack Serbs and try to dismantle makeshift barricades erected by ethnic Serb residents of Kosovo in response to Pristina’s arrests of two Serb former police officers and a third man on trumped up “terrorism” and “war crimes” charges. Protesters say the barricades, which began popping up this month, will stay up until the men are released, and until Kosovo’s militarized police forces deployed in the area are withdrawn.
Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs Bratislav Gacic has indicated that the president had ordered the personnel attached to his ministry to be put on full combat readiness as well.
Separately on Tuesday, Serbian director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija Petar Petkovic warned that Belgrade was “ready to preserve the peace, but also to respond to any kind of threat coming from Pristina” against Serbs.
The official emphasized that while Serbs would not attack anyone and do not want an open conflict, Belgrade would not allow for a repeat of the kinds of pogroms and ethnic cleansing that took place in Kosovo in the 2000s, carried out by the NATO-backed government in Pristina.
The rising tensions in Kosovo, which began this summer over a dispute on vehicle license plate registration, have escalated dramatically in recent weeks with the deployment of heavily armed Kosovar police units in northern areas of the region populated by Serbs. A series of suspected provocations by Pristina have served to ramp up tensions further.
For instance, Orthodox Patriarch of Serbia Porfirio was barred from entering Kosovo on Monday, getting turned back at the administrative crossing in Merdare while attempting to travel to the medieval Serbian Orthodox Monastery in Pec, northwestern Kosovo on the eve of the Christmas holiday, which Serbs mark on January 7.
Vucevic slammed the silence of the international community to Serbs’ plight, including what he characterized as the threat to ethnically cleanse “even the few Serbs left on our centuries-old territory,” and said that Belgrade’s calls for problems to be solved through dialog have gone “unanswered.” The official lamented that the Serbs seem to be the only nation in Europe without the right and freedom to preserve their centuries-old hearths.
26 December 2022, 18:11 GMT
Kosovo, which has enjoyed de-facto independence as a US, EU and NATO protectorate since 2008, has a special historical significance to Serbs, with the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, in which Serbian Prince Lazar managed to hold off a numerically superior Ottoman army, helping Serbia’s kingdoms temporarily avoid becoming Ottoman vassals, and playing a major role in the formation of European nation’s modern identity, including stubborn defiance in the face of overwhelming odds.
Kosovo formally applied for European Union membership on December 15. Subsequently, Serbia’s Defense Ministry
formally requested permission from NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) mission to allow Serbian forces to enter Kosovo to help preserve order on the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, which allows for the deployment of up to a thousand Serbian troops and police in the region.
Belgrade and over 80 UN member states, including Russia, refuse to recognize Kosovo’s self-proclaimed independence status, while the US and most of its allies in Europe, Asia and the Middle East have recognized Pristina’s independence.
The conflict in Kosovo has its roots in the dramatic collapse of living standards and social cohesion which accompanied the collapse of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, but escalated into a military struggle in the late 1990s, after Albanian militants calling themselves the ‘Kosovo Liberation Army’ began a guerilla campaign against Serbian police and troops. NATO intervened in the crisis in the spring of 1999, dropping thousands of bombs on the rump state of Yugoslavia, and ultimately setting up the largest US base in the Balkans, Camp Bondsteel, in southeastern Kosovo.
The unilateral Western recognition of Kosovo’s independence escalated the breakdown of the post-WWII international order, and set the stage for many of the international conflicts that rage today. In 2008, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that “a unilateral declaration of independence and support [for independence of Kosovo] by members of the international community would be illegal, ill-conceived and immoral.”
22 November 2022, 14:00 GMT
