Belgrade forced Serbs to leave Kosovo Security Force

Following the resignation of a number of Serb members of the Kosovo Security Force (FSK), the Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (QKSS) has published a report blaming pressure on the Serbian Government.

According to the QKSS, pressure on Serb KSF members and their massive resignation constitutes “brutal intervention” from Serbia to a Kosovo state institution.

The planned resignation of over 60 KSF Serb members was reportedly held as part of a thought-out military and psychological operation organised by members of military intelligence in Belgrade and Vranje, southern Serbia.

“Threats for cutting off salaries/retire pensions of close and wide family members who reside in Serbia and stopping access to Serbia were used as a means of pressure on Serb KSF members”, the report said.

Psychological pressure was also said to exist. That pressure included members of the Serbian KSF, who were told that a war between Serbia and Kosovo was imminent and that they would end up fighting against their brothers in the Serbian Army”.

The QKSS recommends that Kosovo institutions prepare a new strategy for further integration of the Serb community into the KSF, with the support of international factors in the country.

“The MSF must recruit new members of the Serbian community as a counter-proportion to Serbia's actions and meet the free countries”, the report writes.

Media in Kosovo and Serbia have reported that a number of Serb members of the multiethnic KSF have recently abandoned it, while Kosovo politicians blame Belgrade for allegedly “pression” on Serbs to step down.

Ibrahim Shala, from the Kosovo Security Force Ministry, told BIRN that about 6 per cent of KSF members come from the Serb community and are well integrated into the institution.

But Igor Simi, from the Serbian List, told Serbian web site Telegraf.rs) in July that Kosovo Serbs should not be part of a Kosovo army.

The Serbian List position is very clear, and this stance is shared by all Serbian people in Kosovo. KFOR is the only legitimate military force in this region that is present on the basis of Belgrade's and UN Resolution's consent 1244.

“Pristina is using the difficult financial position of several families in order to blackmail Serbs to accept being part of a form of the Kosovo Army, so it can show some kind of quasi-multicity of these forces”, he said.

Kosovo has taken too long to form a regular army against fierce opposition from Serbia and from the Serb minority in Kosovo.

The Kosovo government on Thursday adopted a new KSF bill, extending its competencies, but avoiding the need for constitutional changes required to turn it into a regular army. / BIRN