Don't waste time waiting for constitutional changes for KSF.

He in a proposal for Online Economics has said they have claimed they want the KSF's conversion to the military to occur through constitutional changes, but according to him, this is not possible.

I've heard many statements of the international factor, our strategic partners, they never heard them say we don't accept, we don't want this to be with legal changes but with constitutional changes”.

Each time they said we'd like to have the KSF transformed into constitutional changes. That's what we want, but it doesn't look like a light in the tunnel so that this force can be done the way we want it to and the international factor”, Kastrati said.

Under the Kosovo Constitution, the establishment of Armed Forces can only be made by two-thirds of the Kosovo Parliament's vote, including two-thirds of the votes by MPs representing minority committees in the Assembly.

Kastrati is convinced that constitutional changes are currently impossible, if the partial and ongoing rejection of Serbian List deputies is taken into account.

Therefore, it has called on Kosovo institutions to move forward with changing the mandate or mission of the Security Force through law.

According to Kastrati, it should repeat the international community that Serb MPs do not want to give the necessary votes for constitutional changes.

I think that the Government of Kosovo, Parliament, the president as supreme commander, must certainly talk to the international factor, to show the reality that only they know that Serb representatives do not want to give up this vote that is necessary, and we as an independent state have the right to make this transformation with legal changes”.

No one can stop us, it's not necessary for someone to get involved in our affairs, whether we're going to make the army by law or by constitution”, Kastrati declared.

The “With the Constitution would have been very good, but let the name remain as it is, give it the military mandate, and then this force can move forward with its operational developments needed to secure borders, contribute to the region and participate in peacekeeping operations within NATO and the EU”, he added.

Kastrati said that Kosovo should not waste time waiting for these constitutional changes, because as he estimates, Serb representatives who are in the Assembly and Government do not represent the interests of their people, but receive direct direction from official Belgrade.

Belgrade authorities, Kastrati says, are arresting Serb KSF members when they enter Serbia, to pressure them to abandon this multiethnic force and this unacceptable situation should also wake up the international factor's response.

“The KSF is a multiethnic force, there are over 100 Serbs within it, but you see that they are arresting them when they are going to Serbia, only to pressure them not to let Serbs take part in the Security Force or tomorrow in Armed Forces”.

“... they do not want Kosovo to move forward with the development of its institutions, and this is unacceptable not only for us. The voice of the international factor and the European Union” must also be heard here, Kastrati has indicated.

In 2017 Kosovo has taken an initiative to create the military only by law and without constitutional changes, but has faced fierce opposition from the US and NATO.

Armed forces, according to Kosovo Government officials, could be founded under NATO supervision, with a specific number of soldiers and weapons and equipment defined in agreements with NATO.