NOsovo

Kosovo was considered a part of Serbia in revolt until 2008 when the government in Pristina, its de facto capital, unilaterally declared itself independent. Dozens of governments do not recognize Kosovo’s unilateral decision, but it was embraced and supported rapidly by the EU bloc and the US, with the exception of Spain and a few others.

For example, a standoff with much of the same flavor as this one occurred 6 months ago in December after an ethnic Serbian police officer in Kosovo-Metohija was arrested and held without charge or trial.

The Serbian President Aleksandr Vuvic claimed, and WaL reported at the time, that he received an ultimatum from the US, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and France ordering him to dismantle road barricades blocking Albanian Kosovar access into Kosovo-Metohija, or the bloc and US would invite the strongman leader of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, to use NATO-trained and equipped ethnic Albanian soldiers to do so in Vuvic’s place.

Therefore, the strong statements of condemnation from these nations today are against the normal pattern of behavior.

Furthermore, NATO, which practically owns Kosovo, and guarantees the security of the breakaway state from the Serbian government which choose instead to reassume control of it, went so far as to kick Kosovo units out of a recent “Defender Europe” NATO training exercise.

“For Kosovo, those exercises are over,” said U.S. Ambassador to Kosovo Jeffrey Hovenier, who also signaled other actions might be taken. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that an additional 700 NATO troops would be deployed to Kosovo, in order to “take all necessary actions to maintain a safe and secure environment for all citizens in Kosovo,” after further clashes were reported on Monday.

Comparatively less condemnation has come the way of Serbia’s Vuvic, whose defense minister Milos Vucevic said that by deploying the army, the administration was making sure that Serbia’s red lines were well-known.

“If anyone starts killing Serbs, raiding their homes, expelling them, or threatening their children or their property, that will be the red line for Serbia,” Vucevic said. “That should be the red line for the entire civilized world”.

President Vuvic appealed to China to use her “enormous international reputation” to advocate on behalf of the Serbs who live in Kosovo-Metohija, who still consider Belgrade their capital, but have been frozen out of legal connection and residence to their home by pressure from the international community following the conclusion of the Serbia-Kosovo war in 1999, and further still by Pristina’s independence putsch in 2008.

Serbia is one of Europe’s political enigmas. An EU-candidate nation that isn’t a member of NATO, she maintains neutrality in her dealings with the West and Russia, a position which many self-branded neutral countries have not kept since the war in Ukraine started. WaL

PICTURED ABOVE: Serbian forces mobilize along the border with disputed Kosovo. PC: Serbian Defense Ministry