In an increasingly tense climate following the arrest of a former Serbian policeman in Kosovo, Belgrade is preparing to deploy armed forces near the border.
Mo12345lemonde with AFP
Aleksandar Vucic, the president of Serbia, dispatched the head of the armies on Sunday, December 25, on the border with Kosovo on Sunday, where Serbs have drawn barricades in a new rise in tensions, General Milan Mojsilovic himself announced.
The chief of staff of the Serbian army, joined by phone by television Pink, said to be on the road to Raska, the city which is ten kilometers from the border with the Kosovo, after S ‘Be maintained with President Vucic in Belgrade.
“The tasks that the Serbian army has obtained (…) are precise, clear and will be fully implemented,” said General Mojsilovic. “The situation there is complicated and complex, and it requires in the coming period the presence of the Serbian army along the administrative line”, the term that the Serbian authorities use to designate the border with Kosovo, A -Al added.
Serbia does not recognize independence that its former southern province, mostly populated by Albanian, proclaimed in 2008. Belgrade encourages the Serbs in Kosovo to challenge local authorities, when Pristina wants to establish her sovereignty on the whole territory.
incidents at the border 2>
Several hundred Serbs have been holding the dam Kosovo since December 10 to protest against the arrest of a former Serbian policeman, paralyzing traffic to two border posts with Serbia.
Shortly before the departure of General Mojsilovic in the border area, several Serbian media broadcast a shared video on social networks, in which we hear gusts of arms, affirming that these are “fights” occurred in the early evening when the Kosovar forces tried to dismantle a barricade.
This was immediately denied by Kosovare police who said on his Facebook page that its members had not participated in any exchange of fire. The media in Pristina said, on the other hand, that a patrol of the peacekeeping force in Kosovo (Kfor) was in the fire zone, but that there were no wounded or damage. For his part, Minister Kosovar of the Interior, Xhelal Svec, said that the KFOR patrol had been attacked. KFOR, which has reinforced its presence in the North lately, has not communicated on the incident.
At the beginning of November, hundreds of Serbian police officers integrated into the Kosovare police, as well as judges, prosecutors and other officials left their post, to protest against a controversial decision, and now suspended from the Pretina government, Prohibit Serbs who live in Kosovo to use license plates issued by Serbia.