Serbian premier Ana Brnabicha harshly replied to the declarations of the Minister of the German Foreign Annalena Baerbock, who defined the idea of sending Serbian security forces to Kosovo as unacceptable. “The final communiqué adopted at the end of the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting on 14 May 2022 says that for the solution of all the problems and various crises in the world (Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, etc.) it is necessary to strictly apply the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” Brnabic said, as reported by tv public aserba Rts. For this reason, he observed, it is surprising that the German Foreign Ministry is now explicitly saying that resolution 1244 – which provides that Serbia has the right to request the return of a certain contingent of its security forces to Kosovo – should be ignored as ‘unacceptable’. “In terms of international law, on the basis of what criteria do you decide which UN resolutions must be respected and which must not be respected? In the case of Libya, for example, resolution 2571 must be respected, while in the case of Serbia, resolution 1244 can be ignored. This it is an astonishing level of absurdity,” said the Serbian PM
Yesterday evening various shots were heard in the north of Kossovo, in reporting the news, the Serbian public TV Rts specified that the new detonations were recorded near the town of Rudare, a village a few kilometers from Mitrovica, capital of Northern Kosovo area where, in a situation of high inter-ethnic tension, the protest of the local Serb population continues, with barricades and road blocks, decided after the arrest of a former Serb agent of the Kosovar police. In the most sensitive areas there are patrols of the NATO force (Kfor) and the European civilian mission (Eulex). Schools operating in the Serbian education system will remain closed as of today 12 December. The president of Kosovo Vjosa Osmani, in the light of the strong tension that persists in the country, after consultations with the political forces, announced ponement to April 23 of the common local elections in the north with a Serb majority. Calls for removal barricades and roadblocks have come from the EU, NATO and the USA.
Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council. In announcing the news, the Presidency in Belgrade did not specify the issues at the center of the meeting, which in all probability will be devoted to the latest worrying developments in the situation in Kosovo.
Kosovar premier Albin Kurti he accused Serbia of threatening a new war by sending its troops to Kosovo, and of supporting the activity of criminal groups whose illegal activities continuously destabilize the situation in the north. Speaking at a press conference at Pristina Together with Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla, at the end of a meeting of the security council, Kurti said that his government wants a democratic and prosperous future for Kosovo while Serbia wants to return to the past marked by war. “The past must remain the same. We are a government of peace that wants to guarantee security for all citizens without distinction of ethnicity, religion, sex or age”, Kurti said, denouncing the strong rearmament of Belgrade. “The militarization of Serbia over the years has brought us to this situation”, with Serbia threatening war and the return of its troops to Kosovo. “The Belgrade leadership today speaks and behaves like 23 years ago (in 1999 the war ended with the withdrawal of the Serbian troops and the entry of the NATO Force (KFOR), ed), and is led by the same politicians, such as Vucic, former propaganda minister of Slobodan Milosevicand the foreign minister Ivica Dacicformer spokesman of Milosevic”, said the Kosovar premier.
For Kurti, the package proposed by Ahtisaari has given local Serbs unprecedented rights. “But the integration of the north, with a Serb majority, has not taken place even 14 years after independence and ten years of negotiations (between Pristina and Belgrade with EU mediation)”.
“The blocking of public roads by criminal gangs shooting at our and EULEX police is unacceptable,” Kurti said.
Words that echoed those spoken by Josef BorrellHigh Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, who reiterated “Europe will not tolerate attacks on EULEXKosovo or the use of violent and criminal acts in the north. The barricades must be removed immediately by groups of Kosovo Serbs”
