Serbian Forces Deployed in Kosovo as Tension Worsens, Conflict Looms Over Barriers Placed in Mitrovica

Serbian forces assisted those putting up the barricades as Kosovan tensions were raised.

Serbia Forces Deployed To Man the Barricades

Today, Serbia added to the number of roadblocks in northern Kosovo in direct contravention of international calls that they are knocked away as they expressed concern that strife there could deteriorate and transform into a military conflict, reported Express UK.

The new barriers, made of heavy-load trucks, emerged overnight in Mitrovica, a town in northern Kosovo split with both Kosovo Serbs and ethnic Albanians, who are the majority in Kosovo.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic ordered the highest alert to defend their people and keep Serbia.

Roadblocks were present the first time Serbs obstructed streets within one of the main towns since such a crisis began. Barricades have already been placed on roads leading to the Kosovo-Serbia border, noted Bloomberg.

Serbs started erecting obstacles 18 days earlier to protest the detention of a former Kosovo Serb police officer, and yet Serbian President Vucic asserted that Kosovan military units have been getting prepared to "attack" Kosovo Serbs in the country's north and consider removing a total of them by coercion.

Kosovo Accused of Raising Tensions

Kosovo Serbians constitute six percent of the total population, and Serbian officials have often contended they are the victims of discrimination in Kosovo.

Serbia alleged this quarter that existing peacekeeping operations supervised by the European Union and NATO had failed to sufficiently help protect the Serbian minority in Kosovo. There are almost 4,000 NATO troops in the neighborhood.

On Tuesday, Vucic called out the west and Kosovo's ethnic Albanian authorities as causing the intentional unrest to kill Serbs at the obstacles. He continued by saying there are personal reasons for Serbia to be expelled from Kosovo, assisted by Belgrade-based agents.

In response to the opposition's and independent media's serious concerns about how the Kosovan crisis is being handled and the measures are taken to address it, citing KTLA.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic declined to comment on Tuesday on reports that Serbia began sending armed men into Kosovo to guard the cordons.

Nevertheless, Kosovan officials have charged Vucic with using Serbia's state-run media to rile up serious difficulties and trigger occurrences that might function as a pretense for a military conflict inside the former Serbian region.

Petar Petkovic, a Serbian official who deals with Kosovan Serbs as contacts, told the state TV RTS that their troops were combat-ready because the same thing was done. He commented that heavily weaponized Kosovan units were ready to attack the Serbs, even women, and defenseless citizens. The barricade defends the right to live.

Kosovo officials, however, have disproved assumptions that the country has enhanced its emergency alert thresholds. Additionally, the defense ministry of Latvia revealed that shots were fired at its troops on Christmas Day, which have been positioned as components of NATO's peacekeeping force.

Last Sunday, December 25, when shots were fired where the peacekeepers were located and conducting a patrol in Kosovo, remarked a source.

Kosovo has requested that NATO-led peacekeepers be billeted there solely to remove obstacles and has hinted that they will do so if the NATO-led peacekeepers, the Kosovo Force (KFOR), respond. Serbian forces are there at the barricades as Kosovo tries to persuade NATO to scuttle the barriers by force.