NATO has rejected Belgrade’s request to deploy 1,000 Serbian security and military personnel to Kosovo amid rising tensions between the two countries, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said.
in an interview Appearing on Serbian television on Sunday, Vucic said that in a letter turning down the request, NATO’s mission in Kosovo – KFOR – declared “they believe there is no need for the withdrawal of Serbian forces on the territory of the Republic of Kosovo”. “
In December, Belgrade requested NATO’s authorization to deploy troops to neighboring Kosovo following violent clashes between Kosovo authorities and Serbs living in the country’s northern region.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a decade after the 1998–1999 war, in which NATO bombed Yugoslavia (which included Serbia and Montenegro) amid ethnic violence against Kosovar Albanians. As of 2014, there were approximately 10,000 Serbs living in Kosovo, many of them opposed to its independence from Serbia. A June 1999 resolution by the United Nations Security Council allows Serbian military personnel to be deployed in sensitive areas such as churches and places with a Serb majority, provided KFOR approves the deployment.
Vucic’s interview comes hotly after the shooting of two young Serbs, Allegedly at the hands of an off-duty Kosovo soldier, in the southern Kosovo town of Strepse on Friday. Kosovo officials condemned the attack; The injuries of the two victims are reportedly not life-threatening.