Serbia on Thursday lifted the combat readiness alert for its troops that it enacted on Monday as ethnic Serbs in northern Kosovo agreed to remove barriers they erected in protest against authorities in Pristina.
As the Serbs began dismantling roadblocks on Thursday, Kosovo also reopened a border crossing with Serbia that it had closed. The roadblocks were erected this month after a former ethnic Serb police officer was arrested for allegedly attacking an election commission office.
Kosovo also stepped up its police presence in the north Serb-majority areas, raising tensions even more. When Serbia placed its military on high alert earlier this week, it said they were ready to deploy troops to Kosovo to protect ethnic Serbs, but tensions appear to have eased, at least for now.
The Serbs who populate the northern areas don’t recognize Kosovo as a country and don’t consider the authorities in Pristina as their government. Most of Kosovo’s population outside of the northern areas are ethnic Albanians.
Tensions have been high in Kosovo since the summer when Pristina tried to enact a law that would ban Serbia-issued license plates. The Serbs in northern Kosovo still use license plates and other documents issued by Belgrade and are against the idea of using Pristina-issued plates.
Pristina is backed by NATO and the alliance’s force in Kosovo, known as KFOR, stepped up its patrols in the north due to the recent tensions. There are about 3,700 NATO troops deployed in Kosovo under KFOR, including over 600 US troops. NATO has had a presence in the region since its 1999 bombing campaign against Serbia that resulted in the creation of the state of Kosovo, which formally declared independence from Serbia in 2008 but isn’t recognized by many countries.
I’m sure the Serbs know that illegal annexations aren’t that easy to accomplish and hold and surely not in the best interest of their country.
The whole US territory has been annexed, first from the American Indians and then from Mexico after the Spaniards had annexed the S.W. first.
So what’s your point? That countries are free to annex territory of neighbors because the US did it?
I think the US did it because the Roman Empire did it too. 🤷🏽♂️
You such a fanatic.
You appear to have a comprehension problem.
Lol, look who’s talking.
The structural principle of American history is “the land-grab”, the ecstatic notion from “manifest destiny” to “exceptional nation”. That’s why the conclusion appears in prospect so inevitable and appalling
I know many Serbs who lived and remembered the NATO bombings. Kosovo is a failed “project” (does the word “state” even apply here?) and it’s only purpose at this point is to make a mockery of them. The Serbian state is no angel, we’ve all got blood on our hands in the Balkans, but NATO’s intrusion to the matter is completely unjustified.
State only applies in the context of the illegal American Proxy State that is hosting Camp Bondsteel.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/baa8277f2da3832e5dbbadcf831dcff60bbbfdfd4daa56fcd3af0d7b70ec9489.jpg PEACE IN 2023.
This is a photo of our village in New Mexico.
Wow! Looks like Paradise.
there are so many states with more than one ethnic group and several languages, Switzerland among them with 3 languages, with some good will there should be no problem to live together with different languages and cultures.
All Serbs and all Russians and many of the rest of us remember 1999 and the NATO invasion and destruction for 78 days , the beginning of its efforts to pretend NATO was still “needed” once the USSR and communism had collapsed. “50 years is enough” protests against NATO were widespread but NATO remains and does even more harm.