Belgrade 'Pressured' Serbs to Quit Kosovo Security Force

Following the resignation of a number of Serbian members of the Kosovo Security Force, KSF, the Kosovar Center for Security Studies, KCSS, has published a report blaming Serbian government pressure.

According to the KCSS, the pressure on Serbian KSF members and their mass withdrawal constituted an act of "brutal interference" by Serbia with a Kosovo state institution.

It says the planned withdrawal of over 60 Serbian KSF members was conducted as part of a thought-out military and psychological operation, arranged by members of military intelligence in Belgrade and in Vranje, southern Serbia.

"Threats of terminating the salaries/pension schemes of close and extended family members residing in Serbia and prohibition of entry into Serbia were used as means of pressure against the Serbian KSF members," the report says.

It says psychological pressure was also exerted. This included Serbian KSF members being told that a war between Serbia and Kosovo was imminent, and that they would "end up fighting against their own brothers in the Serbian Army".

KCSS recommends Kosovo institutions to prepare a new strategy for the further integration of the Serbian community into the KSF, with the support of international factors in the country.

"The MKSF should recruit new Serbian community members as a counter-measure to Serbia's actions and fill the vacancies," reads the report.

Media in both Kosovo and Serbia have reported that a number of Serbian members of the multi-ethnic KSF recently left the force, with Kosovo politicians blaming Belgrade for allegedly "pressuring" Serbs to leave.

The quasi-military body was launched at the beginning of 2009 and became fully operational in 2013.

Ibrahim Shala, from the Kosovo Security...