Thaci Vows to Ease Serb Fears About Kosovo Army

Kosovo Serb representatives from civil society groups, Kosovo's President and pundits on security issues discussed Serb fears about the potential transformation of the Kosovo Security Forces, KSF, into a regular army at a discussion organized by Kosovar Center for Security Studies on Wednesday in Pristina.

No political representatives of Kosovo Serbs participated in the discussion.

"Mistrust regarding the transformation of the KSF is present in the Serb community. This is a high level of fear and a key issue," said Jovan Radosavljevic, director of the New Social Initiative in North Mitrovica, welcoming the initiative for talks on the transformation process.

Radosavljevic unpacked the fears in the Serb community about the potential creation of an army. "We live in a frozen conflict and it is good to consider all the fears and for them to be adequately addressed," he said.

Veroljub Petronic, director of the Humani Centar in Serb-run North Mitrovica, said that some 80 per cent of Kosovo Serbs opposed the transformation of KSF, according to research, while only 7 percent of them did not comment on this issue.

He linked fears of transforming the KSF to events in May 2015 in Kumanovo, in Macedonia, when Macedonian security forces and Albanian insurgents became locked in bloody street battles.

"After the events that took place in Macedonia, in which 21 Kosovo citizens participated, it came out that some were members of the former Kosovo Protection Corps, KPC," said Petronic, adding that Serbs saw the current KSF as a continuity to the KPC.

The trial in Macedonia continues of 37 ethnic Albanians accused of participating in a two-day shootout with Macedonian security forces that left 18 people dead in the northern town.