NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced this Tuesday (30) that the organization has sent an additional 700 troops to Kosovo to quell the violent protests and put another battalion on standby in case the unrest spreads.
“We have decided to send an additional 700 troops from the operational reserve forces to the Western Balkans and place an additional battalion of reserve troops on high alert so that they can be deployed if necessary. These are prudent measures.” Stoltenberg told reporters in Oslo after meeting with Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store.
The composition of a battalion usually varies between 300 and about 1,000 soldiers.
The leader of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, western defense bloc) condemned the violence in northern Kosovo, unleashed three days ago by Kosovo Serb demonstrators demanding the resignation of the mayors of the Albanian majority whose legitimacy undermined Kosovo’s Serbs, a minority in the country but unrecognized by the majority there, have already injured more than 50, including Kosovan police officers and members of the NATO mission in the country, KFOR.
Serbs boycott April municipal elections in four northern cities where they form the majority of the population, resulting in the election of Albanian candidates with a turnout of less than 3.5%.
These mayors took office last week under the regime of the government of Albin Kurti, prime minister of this Albanian-majority country, ignoring calls for reconciliation from the European Union (EU) and the United States.
Serbia – which is backed by its Russian and Chinese allies – has never recognized the independence its former province declared in 2008, a decade after a violent conflict between Serbian troops and Albanian separatists.
Stoltenberg also urged both sides to take steps to ease tensions, refrain from “further irresponsible behaviour” and return to the EU-sponsored negotiating table to normalize relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
Source: DN
