We already know that in the Balkans nothing ever is as simple as it seems first, and if it's about Kosovo and/or its relation with Serbia, things turn into even more complicated and heated. Kosovo Security Force (KSF) is (was) Kosovo's security force, a lightly armed group of about 2500 soldiers (with 800 reserve members) serving in civil protection, disaster recovery, fire department as well as search and rescue. They were formed in 2009 by KFOR (the peacekeeping force of NATO in Kosovo) and KPC (Kosovo Protection Corps, a civil emergency service), led by major-general Rrahman Rama.
Kosovo Security Force members
photo: Valdrin Xhemaj, EPA/BIRN
In 2014 was established the Defense Ministry of Kosovo with a plan to make a professional defense force out of KSF until 2019. Then-defence minister Agim Ceku said, Kosovo needs armed forces to keep up the territorial integrity and sovereignty. This plan seems to come to life right now, in these days.
As it was expected, Serbia heavily protested against Kosovo forming its own professional army. Serbian defense minister Aleksandar Vulin said to Serbian state television RTS that he would discuss it with KFOR, because the surveillance of Kosovo is and should be the responsibility of the international community only. Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić went further saying 'We will try to prevent there things from happening and we will make further decisions when they do.' A not too hidden threatening.
The question rises, and here enters the especially interesting part of the situation, namely, what does the international community, the UN and NATO plan to do? Because just a year ago, when the question of an independent Kosovo army was again on the agenda, NATO officials said that they are against Prishtina's plan, so did the US. NATO's secretary general Jens Stoltenberg warned the Kosovo leadership in March 2017 to stay in close contact with Belgrade and if they have any plan to transform KSF into a 'multiethnic force', it should be done by NATO standards as well as in accordion with the Constitution of Kosovo.
After all these at the beginning of October 2018 Hashim Thaci suddenly announced that KAF will be formed from KSF into an 5000-member professional army with at least 3000 reserve soldiers. The Prishtina parliament passed the bill with two-third majority, the members of Lista Srpska, the party of the Serbian minority in Kosovo boycotted the voting.
Knowing the negative approach of the international community, their reaction for Prishtina passing the bill and Kosovo forming their professional army was at least interesting, if not strange. NATO officials said, right now they have no plan to leave Kosovo, but if the status of KSF changes, they will start to reduce their forces there. Reuters cite an unnamed NATO official who said 'any change in the structure, mandate and mission of KSF is for the Kosovo authorities to decide'.
The reaction of the US raises even more questions. Nikki Haley, the now former UN-ambassador for the US wrote a letter to UN secretary general Antonio Gutierres soon before leaving her position suggesting that UNMIK, the UN's peacekeeping force in Kosovo 'has long fulfilled its mandate and [...] as [the region] marks its ten years of independence', for this reason she suggests that UNMIK should 'develop an exit strategy'. You can read the whole letter of Haley by clicking here.
A row of unanswered questions rises. What is the actual reason to have a professional army in Kosovo - apart from the usual diplomatic reasoning? What made the international community have this 180° turn from having concerns to watching it passively, as well as urging peacekeeping forces to leave the region? It's not the first time that the fate of Kosovo is decided behind closed doors, far from the public eye, with only meaningless commonplaces released in the press. If anybody perhaps knows the answer, feel free to leave it in the comment box below.
Until then we wait and watch the events unfold.
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