Kosovo Premier, Police Claim Belgrade Had a Plan To Annex North Kosovo

Albin Kurti, Ohrid, March 18 2023 (BETAPHOTO/EMIL VAS)

Kosovo Premier Albin Kurti on Oct. 2 upheld the Kosovo police reports that “the Serb terrorist attack” on Sept. 24 was “a part of a broader plan for annexation of North Kosovo through coordinated attacks from 37 positions.” The further envisaged “creation of a corridor with Serbia” to facilitate supplies of arms and troops,” Kurti wrote on X (former Twitter).

Kosovo Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla on Oct. 1 said that Pristina Kosovo possessed evidence that Serbia had attempted to annex North Kosovo, adding that the attackers had been long preparing in military bases in Serbia. He told a news conference that more than 90 people had taken part in the Sept. 24 attack on the Kosovo police. “The facts which would be made public prove that the group was preparing, training and exercising in a military base near Jagodina and also on Mt. Kopaonik,” he said.

Kosovo Police General Director Gazmend Hoxha told a joint news conference that according to the police documents, there was “a plan for annexation of North (Kosovo), envisaging, in the initial phase, 37 positions from where attacks would be launched at police units” throughout North Kosovo. The plan further envisaged, he went on to say” “establishing of a free corridor with Serbia” for transfer of “supplies, people, goods…necessary for armed resistance and creation of a new reality in the country,” Hoxha specified.

Hoxha also presented the details on how the Kosovo police officer had been killed, saying that “a police patrol went to inspect trucks placed on a bridge in the direction of the village, when an explosion occurred.”

On Sept. 27, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic mentioned the possibility that the police officer could have been killed in the explosion, claiming that the killing had not been planned.