T H E GUARDIAN: Is KFOR leaving Kosovo? Albanians were deprived of nothing, Serbs yes

Twenty years after NATO ground troops entered Kosovo at the end of the 78-day air raids, 3,500 troops still remain in the new nation where the conflict has not yet been finally resolved.

Today, KFOR consisting of troops out of 28 different countries functions mainly as the third “reserva” of security behind the Kosovo police and the European Union, although the exception makes those NATO troops guarding the Serbian-orthodox monastery from the 14th century to Decani.

Nato troops translate Periscopi from The Guardian, patrolling the streets of Kosovo are unarmed. In Decani, Serbian priests say that the protection of these soldiers was still praised by the hostility of the municipality, with the recent incident he made in 2016, where four armed Islamists were arrested outside the monastery.

“11 years is a long time for a peacekeeping mission,” said a soldier under condition of anonymity when asked about their duty.

This is not an isolated thought. The United States, which contributes mostly to troops with about 600 sosh sosh chi, has seriously considered leaving Kosovo.

A senior Western official said: “To attract troops would be terrible. In Serbia, we count our troops. This is a country of 1.8 million moderate Muslims. After Afghanistan and Iraq we failed, we need a success. This could be a strategic victory for us.” For now, the United States has decided to leave those few American peacekeepers in this country as far as the trove.

Intervention of NATO in 1999 started with air raids against Serbia, which was only the second time it did so since 1949 then in Bosnia, and even then against Serbian forces.

At first, there had been 50,000 troops led by Sir Mike Jackson, the British military.

Nearly 10 years later, the country's independence had been declared, although Serbia and Russia still do not recognise it.

13,517 people were killed or missing during the Kosovo war between January 1998 and the end of 2000. Among them, 10,415 were Albanians, while 2,197 were Serbs, Periscopi follows.

The final peaceful agreement between Serbia and Kosovo has stalled.

General Laurenzo D'Addario, the Italian who commands KFOR today, declared that the political situation was ill and argued further that the primary goal was “to ensure the population in the north of the country”, where a part of the Serb community lives.

We are required. We offer the core of the security system pillar,” he said, although it remains unclear how long Western governments would like to keep their troops in a relatively quiet country despite the lack of a political solution. /Periscope