Tough Germany: Irritating when Vučić "declares the guilty victims"

A spokesman for the German government says that the Serbian President must be aware of his responsibility for peace in the region. NATO has decided to increase the troops in Kosovo.

After the recent escalation of violence in the north of Kosovo, the German government has called on Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to act. He must be aware of his responsibility for peace in the region and do everything to escalate, a spokesman for the German Foreign Ministry said in Berlin on Friday.

But if the Serbian government now organizes a day of mourning for the killed Dorans, it will not contribute to the escalation, he said. Serbia should "call unequivocally for the renunciation of violence," the spokesman urged.

It is also necessary to clarify the origin of the many weapons found. It is irritating to see how the Serbian president "declares that the culprits are the victims".

In the north of Kosovo, according to government information, 30 armed and masked people opened fire on the Kosovo police on Sunday in a village not far from the border with Serbia. Then they occupied a Serbian Orthodox monastery. A police officer and three attackers were killed during the exchange of fire, according to police.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti spoke about a terrorist attack carried out by criminals encouraged by Serbia. Serbia and Vucic have rejected the accusations.

Meanwhile, the former vice president of the Serbian party in Kosovo, Milan Radoicic, has admitted through a lawyer that he organized the attack. He therefore resigned from his position within the party. According to the announcement, neither the Serbian leadership nor that of the Kosovo Serbs were informed.

NATO increases its presence in Kosovo

In the face of recent tensions in Kosovo, NATO will increase its presence in the Western Balkan country. The transatlantic alliance in Brussels said on Friday that additional forces had been authorized to respond to the current situation. The alliance did not initially say how many more soldiers would be deployed or which countries would provide them. The biggest escalation of violence in several months happened in the north of Kosovo last weekend.

According to the data of the German press agency, dpa, the additional KFOR troops may be British. The Ministry of Defense in London announced just a few months ago that the United Kingdom wants to make "a decisive contribution" to KFOR until at least 2026.

 "We will always continue to ensure that our commander has the resources and flexibility necessary for KFOR to fulfill its mandate," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement. to make further adjustments to KFOR's position as necessary, he said.

28 countries are involved in the KFOR operation of the United Nations, eight of which are not members of NATO. Currently, about 3,400 KFOR soldiers are stationed in Kosovo, including about 80 from the Bundeswehr. About 50,000 Serbs live in the north of Kosovo.

The alliance had already decided in May to increase its presence in Kosovo with 700 soldiers. This was done in response to attacks by Serbian mobs against KFOR soldiers in northern Kosovo. At that time, 30 Italian and Hungarian soldiers and over 50 Serbs were injured./ DW