NATO declines Serbia's request to deploy its troops in Kosovo
NATO's mission in Kosovo, KFOR, has declined a Serbian government request to send up to 1,000 police and army personnel to Kosovo after clashes between Serbs and the Kosovo authorities, President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday, Reuters reports.
Serbia's former province of Kosovo declared independence in 2008 following the 1998-1999 war during which NATO bombed rump-Yugoslavia, comprising Serbia and Montenegro, to protect Albanian-majority Kosovo. "They (KFOR) replied they consider that there is no need for the return of the Serbian army to Kosovo ... citing the United Nations resolution approving their mandate in Kosovo," Serbia's Vucic said in an interview for a private television. Last month, for the first time since the end of the war, Serbia requested to deploy troops in Kosovo in response to clashes between Kosovo authorities and Serbs in the northern region where they constitute a majority. The U. N. Security Council resolution says Serbia may be allowed, if approved by KFOR, to station its personnel at border crossings, Orthodox Christian religious sites and areas with Serb majorities. Vucic criticised KFOR for informing Serbia of its decision on the eve of the Christian Orthodox Christmas, after Kosovo police arrested an off-duty soldier suspected of shooting and wounding two young Serbs near the southern town of Shterpce. Police said both victims, aged 11 and 21, were taken to hospital and their injuries were not life threatening. Kosovo authorities condemned the incident, which has inflamed tensions.
