Ramadan: Constitutional amendments to FAK issue face challenge

Deputy Minister of the Kosovo Security Force Burim Ramadani told Radio Free Europe that the issue is being worked on every day and that, according to him, all obstacles will eventually be overcome. He stressed that the Kosovo government is constantly working on increasing KSF capacities.

I can't say that passing constitutional amendments is a completely possible issue in the moments when we're talking, but that it doesn't necessarily displace Government and institutions to work hard to get to that point. So we have a challenge to pass constitutional amendments to the issue of the Armed Forces of Kosovo, but this does not stop us in our work to get the support of Kosovo Serbs too, Ramadani said.

For transformation, through constitutional changes, the Security Force in the Armed Forces is necessary two-thirds of the Kosovo Parliament vote and two-thirds of the double votes by MPs representing minority committees in the Assembly.

So far this transformation has been flatly rejected by representatives of the Serbian List, which has complicated the entire transformation process. While also from NATO and the international factor, it has become clear that the transition from KSF to the Armed Forces can only be done through the administration of the Constitution.

Ramadani said there are political commitments to win the support of Kosovo Serbs in this direction.

“It is about daily commitment to ensure the support of all communities for constitutional changes”, Ramadani said.

The Kosovo Security Force Ministry, Ramadani said, is currently working on reproceding laws dealing with the KSF, and, according to him, in the coming weeks, are expected to start procedures for change.

“Under the legislative plan in Government, there is also the aim for constitutional amendments and 39 laws to be changed if there are changes of the Constitution. This is part of the Kosovo Security Force Ministry's obligations, which has reproceded it or intends to redo it in Government, then at other institutions”, Ramadani said.

Meanwhile, MP Rexhep Selimi from the opposition party ranks, Vetevendosje Movement, a member of the Kosovo Commission for Internal Affairs, Security and Security Supervision, said all Kosovo governments have consistently failed to do the right job in terms of advancing KSF military and defence capacities.

MP Selimi told Radio Free Europe that for transforming KSF into the military, institutions are being manipulated.

The “from April 2014 to today is manipulated with something that is not really played. It doesn't play with the army and the security of the country. These are continuing over and over again to bring these initiatives, whether legal or constitutional changes to the Kosovo Assembly, given their negative epilogue in advance. I think so now. I wish we had the army, but it looks like it's the same thing now, the same routine as the past few years. We are in the same political and judicial circumstances, as we were in 2014, 15, 16, 2017 <18x1>, Selimi said.

Selimi said it is not good to take initiatives that can remain on the street and that can be unilateral.