The situation at the Kosovo-Serbia border continues to heat up.
The problems continue as Kosovo government advisor, Azem Vlasi stated that the situation could potentially lead to war. He stated:
"If Serbia intends to break away by force a part of Kosovo, it will meet the legitimate resistance that each country has the right to exercise, under international and domestic law, in order to defend its territory.” [1]
While NATO has introduced reinforcements into the area, things could turn quiet nasty if Kosovo and Serbia do indeed go to war. The US recognizes Kosovo as an independent nation and it was stated late last year that by 2014, Kosovo was to become a NATO member [2], thus it would be in NATO’s interest to support Kosovo should a war break out. However, NATO is currently involved in Afghanistan and Libya, thus they may not have enough troops to support Kosovo.
NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR) is made up of 6,300 troops. Kosovo’s security force cannot do much as they are only 2,500 troops who are “lightly armed” whose role is to “conduct crisis response operations in Kosovo and abroad; civil protection operations within Kosovo; and to assist the civil authorities in responding to natural disasters and other emergencies.” [3]
Serbia’s military, on the other hand, consists of 47,000 active-duty personnel [4], who are armed with tanks, artillery, and planes, none of which the Kosovo Security Force nor KFOR have. Thus, if an armed conflict did in fact occur, the Serbs could potentially overrun the Kosovo Security Force and KFOR with ease.
This is all the more reason to see the situation to end peacefully.
Endnotes
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