Repeating the story on the army of Kosovo and a new draft law on the armed forces, the authorities in Pristina try to make room for political pressure and manoeuvre for negotiation with Belgrade in Brussels. It is necessary to modify the Constitution of Kosovo in order to create the legal basis for the military, which means that Serb representatives in the Kosovo parliament need to vote.
Pristina assumes that they would be able to “press” the Serbs as Serbian side also wants to make constitutional changes in Kosovo system and thereby create conditions for the executive powers of the Association/Community of Serbian municipalities.
In addition to the dilemma of whether the Serbs would be able to deal with the pressure, the question is how would the international community react? And the international community wants and Serbs and Albanians to vote for the amendment of the Constitution, because that would be the only way to create conditions for the establishment of the Special Court before which will be tried KLA war crimes.
Ministry for Kosovo Security Forces has prepared a Draft Law on the Armed Forces of Kosovo and next week will forward it to the Kosovo government. According to the text in which Vesti had insight, it is stated that the armed forces, are also the national armed forces of the Republic of Kosovo.
It is said that the obligation of the armed forces is to defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity, citizens, property and interests of the Republic of Kosovo, as well as to contribute to building and maintaining regional peace and regional and global stability, and that the obligations of the forces are also to participate in support operations for responding to crises in supporting peace, to help the population and civilian authorities in the event of natural disasters and other emergencies, conduct explosive ordnance disposal.
Chairman of the Board for Kosovo and Metohija of the Assembly of Serbia, Milovan Drecun believes that this move of Pristina should be of concern of the United Nations, because according to the Resolution 1244 only KFOR as the armed forces should be present, and that the formation of Armed Forces of Kosovo would mean destabilization and deepening of inter-ethnic intolerance.
“The fact that certain countries provide troops to KFOR and are simultaneously conducting training of the members of that future formation of Albanians in Kosovo and Metohija only shows they behave according to double standards,” said Drecun.
Pristina with this move obviously wants to play on the nationalist card, since they cannot offer a better economic situation to citizens. This is indicated by the fact that the Kosovo Central Election Commission recently registered Ballistic Party and the Civic Movement “Ognjiste”, parties with strong nationalist connotations. Although their registration was rejected earlier, now that was not the case, and Serbian voice could not do anything.
– The main problem of Serbs in political life is that there is no mechanism to stop the political processes that are not in the interest of defending the rights of the Serbian community. One vote against in the CEC is not sufficient to prevent anything, and so it is in most other institutions, and even in parliament. Except in the communities committee, Serbian MPs have no mechanisms to fight for their rights. Only when it comes to constitutional changes, required are two-thirds vote of minority MPs, which in practice means that the Special Court, the army, the Community of Serbian municipalities … can only be adopted by vote of the Serbs.
Let there be no error, so called. state of Kosovo can get its army only if Serbs vote for it. Do we succumb to political pressure or trade, or the political representatives will rise above the challenges and adopt mature political decisions that are in our interest, we will see soon – says Nenad Rikalo, Serbian member of the CEC.
