Serbian President Vučić threatens to intervene in Kosovo
President Vucic promises to protect his people from persecution and massacres
Source: Darko Vojinovic/AP/dpa
For years the EU has been trying to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia – without success. In a speech, the Serbian president called on NATO to protect the Serb minority in Kosovo from attacks. If not, Serbia itself will intervene.
DSerbian President Aleksandar Vucic has called on NATO to protect the Serb minority in Kosovo from attacks. Vucic said in a televised speech on Sunday that if the Western military alliance failed to do the job, Serbia would be forced to intervene on its own. “If NATO doesn’t want to do that, we will protect our people from persecution and massacres.” The multinational KFOR force of nearly 4,000 soldiers is stationed in Kosovo under NATO leadership.
Kosovo seceded from Serbia in 1999 and declared independence in 2008, but the government in Belgrade never recognized it, nor did Russia, Serbia’s main ally. For years, the EU has been trying to normalize relations between the two states, which Brussels sees as one of the preconditions for possible membership in the coalition of states. A crisis meeting in Brussels involving a dispute over new entry rules for Serbs in Kosovo ended without agreement on Thursday.
Vucic said in his speech that “gangs” of Kosovar Albanians are occupying northern Kosovo, where most ethnic Serbs live. These must be stopped. He did not provide any evidence for this. At the same time, the Serbian president also insisted that his government would work towards a compromise on the dispute over the entry rules before they take effect on September 1.
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