Serbia Floats Sending Troops to Kosovo in Challenge to Europe

Serbia will request to return troops to Kosovo to protect the ethnic Serb minority, President Aleksandar Vucic said, as tensions among the former wartime foes intensify.

Vucic said the government will formally decide next week to petition the commander of the KFOR peacekeeping force. Serbia could deploy as many as 1,000 military and police personnel to Kosovo under a United Nations resolution that was part of measures to end the 1999 war.

Vucic acknowledged that he expects Serbia’s attempt to fail. “I have no illusions and I know that they will turn down such request,” he said at a news conference on Saturday.

European Union officials brokered a deal between the two sides last month and defuse a spat over license plates and personal documents. But friction between Kosovo’s Serb minority and ethnic Albanian majority has escalated, complicating attempts to normalize ties.

A Kosovo police officer was wounded when an unidentified gunman fired at a police vehicle late Thursday in one of four municipalities where the local Serb majority is loyal to Belgrade, defying the authority of Kosovo’s government.

Vucic vowed to keep demanding protection for the remaining Serbs in Kosovo, who became an ethnic minority when Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

The ensuing war ended with NATO air raids that drove out the Serb military. Serbia doesn’t acknowledge Kosovo’s sovereignty and is working to prevent Kosovo from winning diplomatic recognition from other nations and from joining international bodies such as the UN.

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