Official: KFOR Reducing Its Presence Is a Threat to Kosovo Serbs’ Peace

NATO, KFOR Kosovo (BETAPHOTO/ARMENIJA ZAJMI BESEVIC/EV)

Petar Petkovic, the head of Serbia’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija, said that KFOR reducing its troops or completely withdrawing from Kosovo would have far-reaching consequences for peace and would threaten the lives of the Kosovo Serbs. 

“It would be like striking a match right next to a gunpowder keg,” Petkovic said for the Aug. 23 issue of the Vecernje Novosti daily. 

The Serbian official also recalled that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had received, “on several occasions,” unambiguous assurances that the international troops will not be leaving Kosovo. 

A few days prior, Major General Robert Glavas, the Chief of the General Staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, had said that his country would start gradually reducing the number of its soldiers serving in Kosovo Force in order to be more involved in the activates of NATO’s and the EU high-alert forces.

In an interview for the Balkans Security Network, Glavas said that Slovenia had gained in NATO a reference from one its members that had been working hard achieving high standards in modernization and training of troops.