An end to threats of military force - Serbian aggression against Kosovo

EUROPEAN LETTER OF THE ES-CK - - EUROPEAN SOCIETY COUDENHOVE-KALERGI Genc Pollo, ex-minister and member of parliament in Albania, Tirana For the third time in the last two years, Serbia put its armed forces on alert last week and moved them to the border with Kosovo. In addition to infantry and tanks, fighter jets are also flying over Kosovo's airspace. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said each time that his military is ready to intervene in neighbouring Kosovo to prevent the suffering of the Serb community there. In the first two cases, the Kosovar authorities tried to get Kosovo Serbs in the north to use Kosovar number plates instead of Serbian ones. In the third and current case, Kosovar police escorted four newly elected mayors to their offices. The Serb majority in the northern municipalities had boycotted the mayoral elections, so the elected mayors had a different ethnic background. Moreover, the election was triggered by the resignation of the incumbent mayors last December. Both the resignations and the election boycott were at the instigation of Belgrade. Such local crises do not pose a threat to Serbia. Nor do they constitute a violation of Serbian rights that should prompt such a military response from Kosovo's northern neighbour. The real problem is that the Serbian president is threatening his smaller neighbour with the use of military force. The signatories to the 1945 UN Charter vowed to "repress aggression" and "refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State". The OSCE agreements, to which Serbia is also a party, contain stricter and more detailed formulations. In addition, a few months ago, in an EU-brokered agreement, Serbia and Kosovo agreed to completely dispense with the threat of violence in interstate relations. Kosovo hopes for a clear rejection of military threats from the EU. In order to more clearly promote a normalisation process between the two Balkan states, the EU should condemn Serbian violations of international law in no uncertain terms. Serbia has had ongoing confrontations with international peacekeepers. Belgrade knows that it cannot compete with KFOR, the NATO-led forces stationed in Kosovo. But that has not stopped Belgrade from inciting riots in northern Kosovo and violently attacking KFOR units stationed there with firearms. Dozens of soldiers hospitalised, some in critical condition, were the result. NATO had to send in reinforcements. History teaches us that many wars in the past were thought impossible until they broke out, in some cases even unintentionally. It is undoubtedly in the EU's interest to prevent aggression. The threat of military force must therefore be unacceptable to states that claim to want to join the European Union.