Is Kosovo ready to respond to eventual military attacks from Serbia?

How ready is Kosovo to face a possible military attack from Serbia even after the transformation of the Kosovo Security Force into the military?

Security and Army Affairs Experts Ramadan Qehaja in a brief telephone interview with news.net has indicated that Serbia's threats with war should be taken seriously from a historical perspective since the first Balkan War from now on.

The time for news.net has indicated that Serbia's supply of weapons from China and Russia is not meant for self-defence, but precisely to threaten the Western Balkan region and cause any eventual destabilisation in the region.

Also, Qehaja has noted that Serbia in the inability to form the Association of Serb majority municipalities with executive competence is aiming to forcibly take over Kosovo's north, so militarily.

He further, in question of whether Kosovo is willing to respond to the eventual attacks, Qehaja says Kosovo should think seriously about the issue and be equipped with militant weapons despite the economic crisis and budget.

Qehaja also indicated that despite KFOR's presence as mission NATO in Kosovo, the state must create military defence mechanisms in order to mobilise soldiers for cases of attack.

According to him, KFOR soldiers, NATO and no former soldier has the morale of the Kosovo soldier when it comes to protecting Kosovo, so it is necessary to become effective defence strategy.

Read the following interview:

News.net: How did you comment on statements by the president of Serbia, where he openly threatened Kosovo with war?

Ramadan Qehaja: Since the First Balkan War here, official Serbia has been consistently destabilising in the Balkans, these are issues of history, and on the basis of the recent actions of 21 years ago, in what Serbia did in Kosovo, the horror that caused it, the genocide in general I remember that Vuciqi's statements should be taken very seriously, not that it will immediately start with force, but that it starts with a special war and pressures the talks to continue because otherwise if it fails to achieve its goals, it puts pressure on threats with war.

News.net: Is there real danger from Serbia? So should Kosovo take these statements seriously?

Ramadan Qehaja: I as a professional, professional military and recognizing their fighting doctrine and given that Kosovo is still an integral part under the Constitution of Serbia then a danger exists, so his statement relies on what he in the time of the end, 4-5 years in a row is buying weapons from Russia, China, heavy arms, land-air missiles and others. All this collection of weapons and distribution across command does not go for the need to protect Serbia because it is not endangered, but goes for the need to destabilise the Balkan region. That's why we have to approach these issues.

News.net: Is Kosovo able to respond to the eventual attacks from Serbia?

Ramadan Qehaja: That we will be able to respond to these forces that are trying to break up a portion of Kosovo's territory and the word here is about the part beyond the Iber River that's mostly inhabited by Serbs and there's its purpose because it's looking for the Association of Serbian municipalities and it can't be done that way because Kosovo can't allow this association to form because it would be the NewDodoc Republic in Kosovo, then he's approaching the approach to combat threats and because of that, we have to ask questions where? I think we should examine our self-defense approach, where we are, what weaknesses do we have, what can we do? Despite the economic crisis and budget is limited, we need to do something, in terms of the mobility of our KSF and police forces, not only by vehicles, but in general the transport of forces, we have no helicopter in the Kosovo Armed Forces, nor in the police, we need to ask questions about what if Serbia wants to introduce forces in Kosovo, we need to respond with adequate forces, we have a lot of work to do.

News.net: Following Vuciqi's statements, Kosovo immediately called for NATO's response, is our only security alliance remaining, and how should Kosovo act?

Ramadan Qehaja: Even though we are certain and have KFOR as a mission NATO I don't like this. I think that we soldiers should prepare for self-defense because there is no morality of our soldier who was born and will die here, no find, nor in NATO can we have a NATO soldier who will fight as our local soldier, so our preparations rely on our own forces. KFOR will be and has so far been for the overall security, but in the final conclusion we are the ones to make our preparations.