Edi Rama and Aleksandar Vucic have each argued Western peacekeepers will do a greater job than Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian police
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic have each referred to as on NATO’s Kosovo Drive (KFOR) to take over policing duties within the Serb-populated northern areas of Kosovo, after a lethal shootout between Kosovo police and armed Serbs.
“KFOR should take management of the north of Kosovo,” Rama mentioned at a press convention in Tirana on Thursday. “It’s a proposal that I’ve made earlier than,” he continued, including that “even some voices have requested for it from the Serbian aspect.”
Rama claimed that ought to KFOR fail to intervene now, the Serb minority in northern Kosovo will ultimately launch an assault on Kosovo police necessitating a far bigger intervention by the NATO mission in future.
Kosovo has been occupied by round 5,000 NATO troops since 1999, when the Western bloc launched an air struggle towards Serbia on behalf of ethnic Albanian terrorists, who declare sovereignty over the historic Serbian province. Kosovo declared independence in 2008, a transfer that Serbia, together with Russia and round half of all UN states, don’t acknowledge.
In Belgrade, Vucic issued an identical name on Tuesday after a gathering with envoys from the Quint group, which includes the US, the UK, France, Germany, and Italy. “I reiterated Serbia’s views on the most recent occasions in Kosovo and Metohija and requested that KFOR deal with all safety points within the north of Kosovo as a substitute of Kurti’s police,” he wrote on Instagram, referring to Kosovo’s prime minister, Albin Kurti.
Each statements got here after certainly one of Kurti’s policemen and three Serbs had been shot lifeless within the village of Banjska on Sunday. Vucic claims {that a} group of Serbs had been organising a barricade to fend off raids by Kurti’s forces when these forces provoked a shootout. Kurti claims {that a} group of 30 Serb gunmen fired first, killing the police officer earlier than occupying a monastery for a number of hours after which retreating on foot.
Kurti referred to as the gunmen “Serbian state-backed troops,” whereas Vucic denied any connection between the group and Belgrade. The Serbian chief acknowledged that “Kurti is the one one responsible” for the deadly altercation, including that “his solely want is to pull us right into a struggle with NATO.”
Regardless of the long-standing animosity between Serbia and NATO, Vucic views KFOR as much less threatening to Kosovo’s Serb minority than Kurti’s forces. Had KFOR encountered the Serb barricades on Sunday as a substitute of Kosovo police, he argued on Sunday, “there would have been a lot fewer victims.”
Nonetheless, KFOR “gave Kurti a ‘carte blanche’, as they are saying, to take care of the terrorists and kill as many individuals as potential,” Vucic added.
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