Kosovo army move angers Serbia, Russia Kosovo

Serbia is threatening a possible armed intervention in Kosovo after the Kosovo parliament yesterday overwhelmingly approved the formation of an army.

Belgrade called the move a ‘‘direct threat to peace and stability’’ in the Balkans, and lashed out at the United States for supporting it.

While Nato’s chief called the action by Kosovo ‘‘ill-timed’’, the US approved it as ‘‘Kosovo’s sovereign right’’ as an independent nation that unilaterally broke away from Serbia in 2008.

All 107 lawmakers present in the 120-seat Kosovo parliament yesterday voted in favour of passing three draft laws to expand an existing 4000-strong Kosovo Security Force and turn it into a regular, lightly armed army. Ethnic Serb lawmakers boycotted the vote.

Serbia insists the new army violates a United Nations resolution that ended Serbia’s bloody crackdown on Kosovar separatists in 1998-99. It has warned bluntly that it may respond with an armed intervention in its former province, with Prime Minister Ana Brnabic saying this was ‘‘one of the options on the table’’.

Nikola Selakovic, an adviser to the Serbian president, said the country could send in armed forces or declare Kosovo an occupied territory.

Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said Serbia would seek an urgent session of the UN Security Council over the issue.

Council diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia, a close ally of Serbia, wanted an open meeting to be addressed by Serbia’s president, while European nations wanted a closed session.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres affirmed the UN’s desire to maintain the Kosovo Security Force as the body that ensures the safety of Kosovo.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic visited Serbian troops near the border with Kosovo and later addressed the nation, denouncing the US for its apparent support of a Kosovo army and praising allies Russia and China for their opposition to the move. He said Kosovo and its ‘‘sponsor’’ the US wanted to ‘‘quash’’ the Serbs, but he would not allow it.

Vucic said Serbia had been ‘‘brought to the edge’’ by Kosovo’s decision and now had no choice but to ‘‘defend’’ itself.

It was one of the strongest antiAmerican outbursts by Vucic, a former pro-Russian ultranationalist turned supposed proEU reformer.

Any Serbian armed intervention in Kosovo would mean a direct confrontation with thousands of Nato-led peacekeepers, including US soldiers, who have been stationed in Kosovo since 1999.

Russia denounced the move to form a Kosovo army, saying the ethnic Albanian force should be disbanded by Nato in Kosovo.

Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move not recognised by Belgrade or Russia.

A 1998-99 war ended with a Nato air campaign that stopped a bloody Serbian crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists. Tensions have remained high between the two sides.

Nato and the European Union

‘‘Serbia’s army will now have a partner – Kosovo’s army – in the partnership for peace process.’’ Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj

AP Members of the Kosovo Security Force man a checkpoint during an exercise in the town of Gjilan, shortly before Kosovo’s parliament voted to transform the force into a regular army. The decision has significantly heightened tensions with neighbouring Serbia, from which Kosovo broke away 10 years ago.