Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Sunday asked NATO’s mission in Kosovo (KFOR) and the European Union’s civilian mission in Kosovo (EULEX) for «guarantees» to protect Kosovo Serbs who have barricaded themselves in the northern areas, where they are the majority, and are now exposed to an ultimatum from Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who has given them until tonight to dismantle the blockades.
The Kosovo Serb barricades were erected in protest against the arrest of former Kosovo Serb policeman Dejan Pantic, who was arrested by the Kosovo Police upon his return home. Pantic’s family says they have had no news since his arrest earlier this week, according to Kosovo, for assaulting security forces.
Pantic, like 600 other Kosovo Serb officers, resigned from his post as part of the total boycott declared in November by Lista Serbia, a major Serb political force in northern Kosovo, in the latest episode of a simmering conflict since Kosovo’s independence in 2008 and the so-called license plate crisis over the power of vehicle identification between Pristina and Belgrade.
«Today is undoubtedly the most difficult day for me since I have been president of the Republic or prime minister of Serbia, and probably the most difficult night awaits me,» Vucic has made known in statements after the emergency meeting of his National Security Council In this regard, Vucic asked KFOR and EULEX to «guarantee» that the Kosovar security forces «will not take violent measures» against the demonstrators in the north of Kosovo, before calling the population to calm down in order not to inflame the situation even more, according to declarations to the Serbian public broadcaster RTS.
«And if they do not guarantee it, then everything will be perfectly clear to us,» he warned before applauding the security forces in view of their preparedness in case the situation escalates further. «I am proud of our soldiers and policemen. We have never had such a readiness of people to be available for their homeland,» he said.
«Our conscience is clear. Our hands are tied, but, even when we are cornered, we have to fight. My message to the people is to respect EULEX and KFOR and not allow them to be provoked,» Vucic said.
Vucic announced Saturday that he will ask NATO to deploy the Serbian Army and Police in Kosovo amid this uptick in tensions, a request without any precedent since the end of the war in Kosovo more than 20 years ago.
Although the president has «no illusions» about the possibility of NATO accepting such a deployment at such a critical moment, Vucic has defended that Serbia has the right to make this request and criticized the room for maneuver enjoyed by the Kosovar authorities, who have declared their intention to apply this very month to join the European Union, as he made known in a speech reported by channel B92.
If the request is confirmed, it would be the first time Belgrade has asked to deploy in Kosovo, under the provisions of a UN Security Council resolution that ended a 1998-1999 war in which NATO eventually stepped in to protect Kosovo, which has an Albanian majority.
