“Thank you to soldiers for their courage and commitment”
Serbian President visits barracks near Kosovo border
Against the background of new tensions over Kosovo, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic visited an army barracks in the town of Raska, near the border.
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Alexandar Vucic poses with Chief of Staff Mojsilovic at the Kosovo border.
On Wednesday night he published a photo on his Instagram page showing him with the Serbian Chief of Staff Milan Mojsilovic. He thanks all members of the security forces who would do everything to protect the Serbs in Kosovo, wrote Vucic.
Just under three weeks ago, militant Serbs erected barricades in the predominantly Serb-inhabited north of Kosovo, blocking the roads to the border crossings to Serbia in particular. In doing so, they are protesting against the arrest of a former Kosovo police officer of Serbian origin who, according to the Kosovan authorities, had led attacks on officials of the electoral commission. The militants are supported and sometimes even instructed by the government in Belgrade.
Barracks is at Kfor Buffer Zone
Kosovo, which is now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, used to belong to Serbia and has been independent since 2008. In 1999, NATO bombed Serbia after Serbian security forces killed and expelled Albanian civilians. Until 2008, the UN mission Unmik had administered Kosovo. Serbia does not accept independence and claims the country’s territory for itself.
Raska is about ten kilometers from the border with Kosovo. The barracks Vucic visited is not far from a five-kilometer-wide buffer zone along the Kosovo border, into which Serbian security forces are only allowed to penetrate with the permission of the NATO-led security force KFOR stationed in Kosovo. This is part of the accords struck after the 1999 NATO airstrikes that led to the complete withdrawal of Serbian security forces and administration from Kosovo. (SDA/man)