Conflicts
Balkan trip: Defense Minister Pistorius in Kosovo
Wants to speak to the government and soldiers: Boris Pistorius. (archive image) photo
© Britta Pedersen/dpa
Kosovo is not calming down. The conflict between Serbs and Albanians remains unresolved. Before sending more soldiers, Defense Minister Pistorius visits the region.
Around 70 men and women from the Bundeswehr were deployed at KFOR and the NATO advisory team (Nalt) at the turn of the year. From April onwards, a Bundeswehr company with around 150 additional soldiers is to be deployed in Kosovo for a year.
“The KFOR mission was, is and remains indispensable”
The commander of the operational command, Lieutenant General Bernd Schütt, said at a handover of command in Pristina in January: “The KFOR operation was, is and remains indispensable for maintaining stability in this region.” Participation in the mission also directly affects German security interests.
After an armed uprising by Kosovo Albanians and a NATO intervention against Serbia in 1999, the UN administration Unmik administered the country. KFOR was commissioned by the UN in 1999 to provide security in Kosovo and still has several thousand soldiers stationed there.
Kosovo, which is now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, declared itself independent in 2008. More than 100 countries, including Germany, recognize independence, but not Serbia, which is reclaiming its former province.
Ongoing tensions reached a climax in September last year: a 30-member, heavily armed Serbian commando force fought battles with the Kosovo police in the town of Banjska near Mitrovica in northern Kosovo. Three Serbian attackers and a Kosovar police officer were killed. At the weekend, the EU criticized operations by the Kosovo special police against Serb facilities.