Despite Belgrade pressure, Serbs interested in joining Kosovo Army

With the comprehensive transition plan, the number of KSF members is scheduled to reach 5,000 active members and 2 thousand and 500 reserves.

Dritan Gjonbalaj, political adviser and defence ministry spokesman, told Radio Free Europe that only those who pass the tests will become part of the KSF.

The KSF has accepted 650 recruits who will undergo basic training for nine weeks. The first group of 350 conscripts has begun basic training. The second group will continue in September, and as a result in January next year, this process will be completed”, Gjonbalaj said.

This process, according to officials at the Ministry of Defence, will last nine weeks and after the training phase is passed, recruits will become members of the KSF.

Gjonbalaj says young people's interest has been enormous, including young people from the ranks of communities without exception. Of 650 recruits, 11 percent, according to Johnbalaj. are among the non-communist communities.

Last year, following public calls by Belgrade authorities and other pressures, dozens of members of the Serb community had been forced to release the KSF. But now, according to responsible authorities, there is a new trend of involvement of members of this community.

The goal of KSF is that 10 percent of its members are from non-communal communities, so we're past that goal. Members of the Serb community have been put under great pressure from Belgrade's power not to become part of the KSF. We can be happy to inform you that many of them have applied for KSF recruits and, as I said in accordance with the strict stages of recruiting, 25 of them have been accepted as FKS recruits and are undergoing basic training”, Gjonbalaj said.

The Ministry of Defense says that diversity in the Security Force is the value appreciated and cultivated. They say it has worked hard and is working hard on adequate ethnic and gender representation.

On the other hand, Rexhep Selimi from the Movement, who is a member of the Kosovo Commission for Internal Affairs, Security and Security Supervision, told Radio Free Europe, that the Government of Kosovo has had to have a more extensive dynamic in creating mechanisms required for the Ministry of Defence and Transformment of the KSF.

It seems that there wasn't enough dynamics to make us happy with walking there. Either way, they have plans and we expect them to do it. The first phase of plans that have been preparing the facility by May 21st appears not to have been passed because we are now in June and have spent more than a month doing such a thing”, Selimi said.

The defence ministry, according to Gjonbalaj, has already completed the first phase of the comprehensive transition plan, and that according to him, it has become the first preparation of illegal acts and full administrative preparation to continue with other phases.

While MP Rexhep Selimi considers that even with the recruiting phase, things have had to go faster.

“Dinamics of recruiting should be more advanced, but we know the capacity of the Training and Doctrine Command. We also know the training and accommodation capacity, and we also know that the process of increasing the number of KSF members will be under way inoscretion”.

“Even preparing the facility should be more advanced than it is now. The government would also have to allocate additional funds to the KSF in terms of budgeting. At the same time, it would have to advance even military equipment and technology, not excluding even the” weapons, Selimi said.

The Kosovo Security Force was established in 2009 under the Ahtisaari Plan, a document leading to Kosovo's independence. The KSF transition from a civil emergency force in the Army was a long process that was finalised at the end of 2018, following the support Kosovo received from the United States of America.

Currently, this force is in the phase of transformation into the Army, which is projected to last for 7 years. This force has been established under NATO supervision, but its mission and capacities did not coincide with the ambition of institutions, for Kosovo to have its Army.