Belgrade, 27 December 2022 (GNP): The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, says that the Serbian army has been put on high alert after the information that Pristina is planning against the ethnic Serb living in northern Kosovo.
However, the government officials in Pristina denied the planning of any such activity and blamed the Serbian government for mala fide intentions.
The European Union stressed upon the two sides to exercise maximum restraint and avoid any hostility. Kosovo, having an Albanian ethnic majority, seceded from Serbia in the 1998-98 war. However, Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo as an independent state, nor does ethnic Serbs live there whose life and property are in danger as claimed by the government of Serbia.
In a presumably reported shoot-out incident in which no one was hurt, which Belgrade claimed was an attempt by Pristina to kill ethnic Serbs living in northern Kosovo, the Serbian army has increased its presence on borders with Kosovo.
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NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) of 3,700 troops has been trying to maintain the crumbling peace in Kosovo for many years and also urged both sides to avoid any conflict.
The Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said that the situation in Kosovo is very pernicious for peace.
The situation in Kosovo aggravated after 10 December, when a former police officer was arrested by the authorities on the charges of attacking the NATO-led Kosovo Force.
The ethnic Serb protestors barricaded the roads leading to northern Kosovo, where their majority live, following the arrest of the police officer. The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti asked for the removal of these blockades, but the protesting Serbs accused Pristina of planning a genocide of theirs.
The government of Serbia demanded that the NATO-led KFOR mission allow the Serbian troops to enter into the area for the protection and security of their ethnic brethren living there. However, KFOR turned down this demand by saying that they have already boosted their security in the area.
Earlier in November, 600 ethnic Serbs employees of Kosovo police resigned from their service as a protest because the Kosovo government wanted to replace the Serbian car registration plate number with the local car registration number. The situation was eased when European Union brokered a deal in which Kosovo agreed on the removal of proposed fines, while Serbia stopped the further registration of car numbers in Kosovo.