Through KSF, Belgrade complicates dialogue

In recent days, about 20 Serb members of the Kosovo Security Force from the Gjilan region have collectively submitted demands to withdraw from this force due to pressure from Belgrade.

Naim Rashit, director of the Balkan Policy Group in Kosovo, speaking of Radio Free Europe, stresses that reaching an agreement that would fully normalise reports between Kosovo and Serbia would pave the way for the transformation of the Kosovo Security Force into the Kosovo Army to become fully legal, as well as for the members of all communities.

“On the verge of a difficult dialogue, Serbs are investing everything to make the process more complicated, so that new parameters can be formed, either for the formation of the military or for its expansion, in particular in the north, even for its capacities. So its strategy goes beyond the departure of people from the Kosovo military. It's about creating a whole different situation, almost from zero, of negotiating positions”, Rashi points out.

Dusan Janjaq from the Forum for Ethnic Relations in Belgrade tells Radio Free Europe that the KSF's bid to abandon, Serbian members of this force have not done so voluntarily, but under pressure from Belgrade.

According to him, Serbia's own president, Aleksandar Vuciq, following the arrest in Kosovo of Serbia's Government Office for Kosovo chief Marko Djuric, at the end of March of this year, had warned the measures and urged Serbs who are part of the Kosovo Security Force to abandon him.

The reasons, according to him, could be for Serbia's short and long-term goals.

The short-term goal is to strengthen the position and show that Belgrade has influence in Kosovo. So, to reinforce the position in negotiations that will be in the continuation of the talks, especially on the matter of the Community of Serbian municipalities. The long-term goal could be to destabilise Kosovo and create conditions for Belgrade not to be the sole or responsible one if it is achieved until the end of this kind of talks being held in Brussels”, Janjic says.

He also sees Belgrade's official pressure on Serb KSF members only as a more action in the policy that is following Kosovo. That, according to him, may be a warning that Belgrade is preparing to abandon Brussels' dialogue, but not to blame it.

Regarding the request of Serb KSF members to be released from this force, the United States' ambassador to Pristina, Greg Delaway, has also reacted. Through the social network, Twitter, he has expressed his deep concern for “for the recent resignations of Serbian KSF members”.

“Outbound suspension of KSF members is unacceptable. KSF diversity is a model for the country. It should be celebrated, not destroyed”, Delawi wrote on Twitter.

Meanwhile, Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has responded to, as it has been said, the pressure Belgrade is putting on Serb members of the Kosovo Security Force.

“It is unacceptable to their intervention, threats and blackmail, as well as all actions they take against Kosovo Serb citizens, KSF members”, Haradinaj has said.

On the other hand, Marko Djurovic, chief of the Office for Kosovo of the Government of Serbia, has told Serbian media Friday that the state of Serbia, based on law, is rejecting the formation of, as he has called it, “a foreign army” in Kosovo. Reactions by official Pristina, he has described them as nervous reactions.

In fact, they're just showing how nervous they are because of insisting on preventing the formation of preconditions for new conflicts, because that army would serve only for new conflicts. It needs us to have the situation, as in the time of the Austrian and Turkish wars, for the Serb to shoot the Serb in that army”, Djuric has said.

But, Rashit says, the opinion that Serbia's authorities are still not sure what they want with the current actions that connect with future dialogue with Kosovo.

A section wants multi-year guarantees that there will be no participation in the north at all and that the north will be out of control of the new army. Another part thinks there must be a special command. They're not defined yet. The important thing for them is to create a context which requires additional negotiations, almost from zero points, beyond the plan Ahatsaari has preceded, of the process of transforming the Kosovo Army”, Rashi says.

In the meantime, Janzic voiced the opinion that official Belgrade's pressure on Serb KSF members could have negative effects on Belgrade itself.

In this case, he is not respecting the will, not even of members of his community, who are minorities in Kosovo. After all, it is showing the tendency that Belgrade is again disturbing its relations with NATO, because, in fact, NATO controls the situation in Kosovo”, Janjic estimates.

Kosovo Security Forces currently have 103 members from the Serb community, or 5 per cent from the total number of members of the force.

Kosovo institutions learn to transform the Kosovo Security Force into the Kosovo Army, but constitutional changes are needed for that, respectively, the support of Serbian deputies in the Kosovo Assembly, which for the time being, oppose the formation of this army.