Shots in Kosovo: Does NATO have to intervene?

Bundeswehr soldiers on site - "Keep the peace"

Created: 08/01/2022, 19:36

By: Patrick Mayer

The situation is serious: there are tensions on the border between Kosovo and Serbia.

NATO affirms that it will intervene militarily if necessary.

Bundeswehr soldiers are also stationed there.

Munich / Pristina - The Western Balkans are again causing great concern.

After the Republic of Srpska in Bosnia-Herzegovina pushed ahead with the destabilization of the country of 3.3 million inhabitants, incidents broke out on Sunday (July 31) in northern Kosovo on the border with Serbia.

Specifically: militant Serbs blocked the access roads to two border crossings with large construction machines and trucks.

Tensions in Kosovo: roadblocks by militant Serbs, shots at Kosovan police officers

As the government in Pristina explained, unknown persons also fired shots at Kosovan police officers.

Nobody was injured.

Furthermore, according to posts on social media, isolated air raid sirens wailed in Kosovo.

The situation is tense: The north of the country with its around 1.9 million inhabitants is mostly inhabited by Serbs who feel they belong to the much larger Serbia (around 7 million inhabitants).

Kosovo was once an autonomous province of Yugoslavia.

Serbia does not recognize the independence that was proclaimed in February 1999.

In the bloody Kosovo war for said independence between February 1998 and June 1999 it is estimated that almost 13,000 people were killed.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) recently called for an end to the Serbia-Kosovo conflict at a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

At the time, Vucic replied harshly that he would not let himself be put under pressure.

Tense situation in the Balkans: US soldiers at one of the road barricades in Kosovo.

© Armend NIMANI / AFP

Tensions in Kosovo and the Balkans: Serbia warns its southern neighbor

According

to the TV channel N1, the head of government from Belgrade said at the weekend that his country "has never been in a more complex and difficult situation than it is today,"

He called on all sides to keep the peace and then issued a sharp threat: "If you don't want to keep the peace, then I tell you that Serbia will win." Administrative line not crossed and for the time being in no way invaded the territory of Kosovo and Metohija.”

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The background to the uproar was a decision by the Kosovan government that cars belonging to Kosovan citizens with Serbian license plates must now be fitted with local license plates.

Citizens of Serbian origin had often refused to do so in the past and carried a Serbian license plate.

The new regulations also stipulated that Serbian citizens entering Kosovo need a provisional Kosovar identity document in addition to their passport.

For the duration of your stay.

Serbia had previously issued the same regulations for Kosovan citizens.

Meanwhile, Pristina is trying to de-escalate the tense situation.

Kosovan Prime Minister Albin Kurti said on Monday night (1 August) that the implementation of the new regulation would be suspended for a month as soon as the militant Serbs removed the street barricades.

According to the Serbian state television RTS, this happened in the morning - trucks loaded with gravel were driven away.

Nevertheless, caution prevails - on all sides.

According to the government in Pristina, "the US partners" got involved and advised that the planned rules be postponed.

Tensions in Kosovo and the Balkans: NATO provides most of the NATO troops

Almost 4,000 soldiers from the international peacekeeping mission KFOR are stationed in Kosovo - according to the Bundeswehr, these currently include around 70 German soldiers.

The transnational defense alliance NATO, which provides the majority of the troops, said in a statement on the incident: "The NATO-led KFOR mission is monitoring the situation closely and is ready to intervene if stability is threatened." NATO further wrote: "The general security situation in the northern municipalities of Kosovo is tense."

As Die

reports, KFOR increased its presence at the Ibar Bridge in Mitrovica.

The particularly polarizing city with around 60,000 inhabitants has a Serbian northern part and a Kosovar-Albanian southern part.

Both parts of the city are separated by the river Ibar.

NATO troops patrol there again and again.

Photos, meanwhile, showed armed American soldiers inspecting the road barricades further north.

KFOR (Kosovo Force)

KFOR is the NATO-led multinational military peacekeeping force established in June 1999 after the end of the Kosovo war.

Between February 1998 and June 1999, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and the Yugoslav Army fought each other.

The war killed an estimated 13,000 soldiers and civilians.

In the meantime, 40 states stationed around 48,000 soldiers in the small country in the Western Balkans, which today has around 1.9 million inhabitants.

The Bundeswehr has meanwhile taken part in the NATO mission with up to 6,000 soldiers.

KFOR currently has fewer than 4,000 soldiers, including around 70 from Germany.

Federal Defense Ministry Christine Lambrecht (SPD) confirmed: “The Bundeswehr remains committed to NATO and KFOR in order to guarantee a safe environment and freedom of movement for all people in Kosovo.

It is good that the Kosovan government has now reacted calmly and is thus contributing to relaxation.” The Bundeswehr contingent is stationed in the capital Pristina in the center of the small country.

According to their own statements, reconnaissance missions are part of the range of tasks.

At the beginning of the NATO mission, the Bundeswehr had meanwhile provided 6,000 soldiers in Kosovo.

On June 13, 1999, shortly after the start of the mission, there was a deadly exchange of fire between German soldiers and Serbian irregulars in Prizren.

As

writes, two Serbs were killed and a Bundeswehr soldier was shot in the arm.

Tensions in the Western Balkans: Around 70 Bundeswehr soldiers are stationed in Kosovo

According to the Bundeswehr, the NATO mandate provides for the German contingent in Kosovo to be increased to up to 400 soldiers.

The Defense Committee of the German Bundestag will deal with the tensions between Serbia and Kosovo at its special session this Wednesday (3 August).

"Before I allow myself a judgement, I'll let myself be informed in detail," said the committee chairwoman, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP), to the news portal

: "I have therefore put it on the agenda of the special session of the Defense Committee. Only recently, the German parliament approved the deployment of up to 50 Bundeswehr soldiers to Bosnia-Herzegovina as part of the Eufor peacekeeping mission.

Now Kosovo is worrying again.