Kosovo Albanians "ready to use force"
The international community has been notified that the Kosovo Albanian government would use force against the northern, Serb areas of Kosovo.This is according to a report in the Belgrade daily Danas, which specifies that this would take place if the northern municipalities were to "declare independence".
(KosovoCompromise Staff) Friday, August 20, 2010
Pristina government's interior minister, Bajram Redzepi, is quoted by the newspaper as saying that in case of such a "secession", they were "ready to react, including an armed reaction, in order to protect the territorial integrity".
Furthermore, Redzepi said, "those who would go for such a move would be arrested". Redzepi said that KFOR, EULEX and ICO headed by Pieter Feith were all notified of this scenario, and "asked for help so it doesn't come to pass".
All this comes in the wake of a phantom declaration that has been given great attention by the Albanian language media in Pristina and local politicians, where an unknown group, calling itself "the Alliance of Municipalities of the Autonomous Province of Kosovo "said it would proclaim the north of the province "independent".
It remains unknown who in fact put the text together.
The north is predominantly populated by Serbs who do not accept the Kosovo Albanian unilateral declaration of independence made in early 2008, and are loyal to Belgrade.
The Serbian Ministry for Kosovo said in a statement on Thursday that the paper was the work of a "handful of irresponsible persons", and called on Serbs in Kosovo not to respond to provocations coming "from Pristina and groups of irresponsible persons from the Serb community alike".
