Colonel Nik Ducic, commander of the US Bondsteel base in Kosovo, said on Friday that President Hashim Thaci’s visit to the Gazivode lake was about domestic politics.

The colonel told Gracanica TV that the visit upset both the Serb and Albanian communities even though there were no incidents. “You know that there was a protest in Pristina that day which was not reported by the media. There were no incidents and no one was arrested. I wouldn’t exaggerate but would view this as a domestic political step,” he said.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic ordered Army of Serbia units in southern Serbia to raise combat readiness in response to reports that Kosovo President Hashim Thaci had deployed the Kosovo police special unit ROSU in the Gazivode area during his visit.

He called the population no to bee “too emotional” with the news because “sometimes the words used to describe something do not reflect the truth”. Colonel Ducic said that the situation in Kosovo is peaceful and stable as it was when he took command of the base six months ago.

Ducic said the number of KFOR personnel can be increased when needed from the current 4,000 from 29 countries.