Serbia’s Minister of Defence Milos Vucevic said they will only invade Kosovo on President Aleksander Vucic’s orders, while Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has reinforced Pristina’s view that Serbia was planning to annexe the north of Kosovo on the terrorist attack on 24 September.
Just over one week ago, some 30 individuals, including the recently resigned head of the Serbian List political party and Serbian security chief Aleksander Vulin’s bodyguard, ambushed Kosovo police, killing one officer. They then barricaded themselves in a monastery and engaged in a shootout with police, during which at least three Serbs were killed.
Kosovo police subsequently seized significant amounts of weapons, ammunition, and armoured vehicles, enough for hundreds of people.
On Monday, Kurti said that based on evidence seized by Kosovo police and intelligence from the ground, the terrorists were planning to create a security cordon to allow the supply of troops and weapons from Serbia.
“Based on the documentation confiscated by the Kosovo Police, it is confirmed that the terrorist attack was part of a larger plan to annex the north of Kosovo through a coordinated attack in 37 distinct positions. The creation of a corridor to Serbia would follow, to enable the supply of weapons and troops”, Kurti said.
He added, “The Kosovo Police has continued with its operations where it confiscated an arsenal of weapons in the area where the attack took place, including grenade launchers, bulletproof vests, magazines with cartridges, military hats, gloves, hunting rifles, sniper rifles, radios.”
Documents published by the Interior Ministry last week also claimed to show that some of the arsenal was procured from the Serbian army.
Meanwhile, the Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Army, Milan Mojsilovic denied the accusations that Serbia was going to annex the north of the country which is populated with the majority of Kosovo’s approximately 6% Serb minority.
“The Serbian army is a serious, strong organisation that does not tolerate lies,” Mojsilovic said at a press conference in Belgrade.
“I deny all the accusations made by Pristina”, he emphasised.
But Minister of Defence Vucevic underlined that if the Serbian Army received an order from the president of Serbia for its units to enter the territory of Kosovo as part of Serbia, they would carry out such a task efficiently, professionally and successfully.
“And then they would announce it to the KFOR command. They would not work behind anyone’s back but respect the norms of international law and the law of war. Until today, we have not had to make such a decision, and Serbia will do everything in its power to prevent this from happening by keeping the peace and looking for political solutions”, explained Vucevic.
The minister also claimed that during these years, Serbian Armed Forces have not crossed the administrative line without coordination with KFOR, in accordance with UNSCR 1244 and the Kumanovo Agreement.
Over the weekend, the US demanded Serbia reduce the number of troops on the border, stating they had increased significantly in recent days. While Vucic claimed this was not true, Mojsilovic inadvertently confirmed it by saying Serbia had withdrawn some of its troops.
But Matthew Miller, US State Department spokesperson on Monday said they had been unable to confirm if this was the case.
Meanwhile, EU spokesperson Peter Stano said that the Kosovo police have a mandate to investigate the terrorist attack while Serbia is obliged to cooperate unconditionally.
“Every day, new evidence comes out. We do not comment on them, but we await final results that clarify all the circumstances of the terrorist attack. We expect full cooperation from Serbia. The EU has clearly said that we are ready to take measures against Serbia if the member countries estimate that they have sufficient evidence”, said Stano.
“This happened in the territory of Kosovo and the investigations are done by the Kosovo Police. We have very good cooperation with them”, he added.
(Jelena Nikolić | Euractiv.rs, Alice Taylor | Euractiv.com)
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