Voting Dec. 13 to transform its 4,000-member security force into a regular army, Serbia contends that Kosovo violated the 1999 Dayton Accords that ended the Serbia-Kosvo War. Yet Kosovo’s Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj insists that whatever army’s formed would be used as a joint military force to secure peace in the Balkans. Serbia’s 48-year-old Russian-backed President Aleksandar Vucic, whose government does not recognize Kosvo’s independence, insists that the formation of a Kosovo army is illegal under the 1998-99 ceasefire agreement. Calling the Kosovo army an “illegal occupation armed formation,” Vucic mirrors Moscow and Beijing, both opposed to Kosovo’s independence. Serbian and Kosovo fought a bitter ethnic war with Serbia’s late President Slobodan Milocevic accused of ethnic cleansing against Kosvo’s Albanian Muslim population.
A determined NATO bombing campaign stopped Milocevic’s war against Kosovo’s Albanian population, ending eventually in his incarceration at The Hague for war crimes, including genocide. Milocevic died March 11, 2006 awaiting trial for war crimes in the 1998-99 Serbian-Kosovo War. While the casualties were relatively light for Serbia, about 3,500, there were estimated 250,000 Kosovo civilians and insurgents killed in the run-up to the 1998-99 conflict, requiring a dedicated NATO bombing campaign to topple the Milosevic government. “Serbia’s army now have a partner—the Kosovo Army—in partnership for the peace process and it won’t be a long time before we serve together,” aid Kosvo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj. Haradinaj disputes that Kosvo’s army violates the Dayton Accords or any ceasefire agreement, believing the army’s designed to provide better security for the region.
Serbia contends that the Kosovo’s army’s designed to persecute remains Serbs living in Kosovo. Serbia’s Prime Minister Ana Brnabic warned Haradinaj that the Serbian Army could be deployed to stop Kosvo’s army. “Today is not the day that contributes to cooperation and stability in the region,” said Brnabic, imploring Haradinaj to sit down with Serbia and discuss Kosovo’s plans not only for an army but formally asking for recognition as an independent state. With emotions running high, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said the Kosovo army was the biggest threat to the region. “The most direct threat to peace and stability in the region and to the security to the Serbian people,” said Dacic, overstating the threat. Western powers like the U.S., European Union and the U.K., accept Kosovo as an independent state, unlike Moscow and Beijing wanting Kosvo to remain part of Serbia.
Under Josip Broz Tito, who ruled Yugoslavia under communism from Jan. 14, 1953 to May 4, 1980, the Balkan’s disparate regions and tribes lived under one Yugoslavian umbrella. Tito’s tight grip on Yugoslavia kept the Soviet Union from annexing Yugoslavia as another Soviet satellite state. Once Tito died May 4, 1980 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, Yugoslavia began to unravel into its various historic regions and tribes, largely along historic religious lines. None of those divisions were greater than Eastern Orthodox Serbia living along side Muslims, who, under the Ottoman Empire, ruled the Balkans for 500 years until the end of WW I in 1918. After the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 the Balkans were formally divided along ethnic and religious lines, until Tito unified the country in 1953. Viewed as a Soviet puppet by some, Tito was a committed nationalist to peace in the Balkans.
Demanding the NATO peacekeeper stop Pristina from forming its own army, Serbian official Marko Djuric wants Kosvo to back down. Most Serbs find the move unacceptable because any change in Kosvo’s final status as a U.N. independent state. Kosovo is currently not a U.N.-recognized state, whose ultimate fate must be decided by negotiation under the 1999 Kosovo War ceasefire agreement. Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 but it’s not recognized by Moscow, Beijing or other countries closely tied to both. NATO peacekeepers find themselves in the middle of an inevitable dispute, as Kosvo continues to obtain Western backing for independence. Serbia lost control of the province in 1999, when the Dayton Accords guaranteed Kosovo autonomy after suffering unthinkable ethnic cleansing not seen since the Nazi era at the hands of the Serbian military.
NATO wants to avoid a confrontation between Serbia and the new Kosovo army. While there’s sympathy in NATO for Kosovo’s eventual independence, there’s no stomach for another war. NATO’s Secretary-General Jason Stoltenberg called Kosovo’s decision to create its own army “ill-timed.” Stotenberg called on both sides to stand down, until the issue could be debated and resolved at the U.N. U.S. officials backed Kosovo’s right to its own army, jumping ahead of the region’s demand for independence. Calling “Kosovo’s army a sovereign right, the U.S. pits itself directly against Moscow, who’s served as an overlord in Serbia since the end of the Kosvo War. U.S. officials urged Kosovo to maintain “close coordination with NATO allies and partners and to engage in outreach to minority communities.” Unless Kosovo stands down, sparks could start to fly.
