NATO Asks More Troops for Kosovo

PRISTINA, Kosovo - NATO has asked for troop reinforcements for Kosovo, a spokesman said Aug. 2, while denying the demand was linked to the recent unrest in the volatile north.
"We can control the situation [in the north], we have enough troops. It is not because of our inability to control the situation. Our soldiers deployed on the ground will need some relief ... and we need [new troops] to back up the soldiers," as reserves, Kosovo Force (KFOR) spokesman Hans Dieter Wichter told Agence France-Presse.

NATO's KFOR mission currently has more than 5,900 soldiers on the ground and Wichter said they asked for a reinforcement of a battalion, usually around 500 troops.
A NATO official in Brussels confirmed to AFP that it had issued "the activation order for the KFOR operational reserve" of a battalion-size unit of several hundred soldiers.
"The deployment will take place over the course of the coming days," the official said. The source would not say where the additional troops were coming from.
Unrest flared in Kosovo last week when the ethnic Albanian Kosovo government ordered police to seize control of two border crossings in northern Kosovo.
Kosovo officials said this was needed to enforce a ban on imports from Serbia that was not being respected by ethnic Serb members of Kosovo's border police on the border with Serbia. In the resulting clashes one ethnic Albanian police officer was killed.
NATO troops stepped in when a border post in Kosovo was set on fire and bulldozed, apparently by ethnic Serbs.
Angry Kosovo Serbs have been blocking the roads leading to the crossing for several days and vowed to remain at the barricades until a solution was found.
Kosovo banned imports from Serbia in response to the same move by Belgrade in 2008, the date the ethnic Albanian majority unilaterally proclaimed its independence from Serbia.
European Union U envoy Robert Cooper met with Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci in Pristina on Aug. 2, diplomatic sources told AFP. Cooper was sent from Brussels to mediate between the Kosovo and Serbian authorities following the recent unrest.
On Aug. 1, Cooper met Serbia's top negotiator Borko Stefanovic and minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic.
Stefanovic said the Aug. 1 with Cooper were "difficult and complicated" adding that the Serbian side "expressed the legitimate demands of [Serb] citizens to restore things back to the situation before the crisis," Beta news agency reported.
"We want to enable free movement of people and get back to dialogue ... but the crisis has to be solved in the way we demanded," Beta quoted Stefanovic as saying while addressing Serbs on a barricade in northern Kosovo.
The disputed border crossings are seen as vital by many Kosovo Serbs as they provide a link with Serbia on which northern Kosovo almost exclusively relies for supplies of food and medicine. Over the weekend the first reports emerged of food shortages in some northern Kosovo towns.

EU Envoy to Meet Serbian Officials Over Unrest: Media

BELGRADE - EU mediator Robert Cooper was to meet with Serbian officials Aug. 1 to discuss the recent unrest in Serb-majority nothern Kosovo, local media reported.
Cooper would meet Serbia's Minister for Kosovo Goran Bogdanovic and Belgrade's top negotiator Borko Stefanovic in Raska, a few miles from the border with Kosovo, the Beta news agency said, quoting well-informed sources.

The European Union already urged both sides last week to "show maximum restraint" to avoid further escalation after NATO troops stepped in when a border post in Kosovo was set on fire and bulldozed, apparently by ethnic Serbs.
Cooper is also set to meet Kosovo officials but it was not clear if that meeting would also be on Aug. 1.
On the ground, NATO forces reported Aug. 1 that they had removed three road blocks in northern Kosovo to allow access to one of the two border crossings that are at the center of a trade dispute.
Angry Kosovo Serbs had been blocking the roads leading to the crossing for several days.
"The operation was conducted swiftly and successfully. There was no resistance," the NATO-led KFOR mission said in a press release.
"The present situation in the North of Kosovo is calm but tense," KFOR added, but said its peacekeepers were "still deployed at the main gates".
Cars and buses are allowed to pass after rigorous security checks but heavy vehicles are still stopped at the border, it said.
"There is still the threat that radicals attack the crossing points like they did," KFOR warned.
Meanwhile in Pristina, the Kosovo security council chaired by prime minister Hashim Thaci ordered the police and other security services to be on the alert, a press release said.
"The Kosovo security council requested security agencies to keep a higher level of readiness for a possible intervention with all means available in case the state sovereignty and constitutional order are endangered," the government said in the press release.
Last week the Kosovo government ordered police to seize control of the two border crossings to enforce a ban on imports from Serbia, fearing it was not being respected by ethnic Serb members of Kosovo's border police.
The move provoked an angry response, with one Kosovar police officer killed and four others hurt in clashes with Serbs before the arson attack by masked men.
On July 28, troops from KFOR took control of both border posts to prevent large-scale violence.
Serbia banned imports from Kosovo immediately after it had declared independence from Belgrade in 2008. Pristina's decision to retaliate caught many by surprise.
More than 90 percent of Kosovo's imported food comes from Serbia, one of its main suppliers with goods totalling 260 million euros ($370 million) a year.
Belgrade and Kosovo's ethnic Serb minority have never recognized the government in Pristina.

Italy Removes Aircraft Carrier from Libya Campaign

ROME - Italy is withdrawing its aircraft carrier the Garibaldi from NATO's operation in Libya to cut 80 million euros ($114 million) in costs, a minister announced July 6.
They also planned to pull out another ship from the mission.

"We have cut back costs in Libya, from 142 million euros forecast in the first half of the year to less than 60 million for the second half," Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa said after a government meeting.
The news came after Italy's Cabinet moved to cut spending military spending.
The plan had been drawn up to pull the Garibaldi, its three fighter jets and 1,000 personnel out of the mission as they were "no longer necessary", La Russa said.
The Garibaldi would be replaced by a smaller boat and other planes from military bases would be used, he added.
Another ship would also be withdrawn from the mission as well, he added without elaborating.
Italy has several ships and eight planes deployed in NATO's mission against Libya's Col. Moammar Gadhafi. Seven of its air bases are also used by other members of the coalition.
With Italy grappling a financial crisis that has forced it to pass a series of austerity cuts, the government on July 6 said it had decided to gradually reduce its military operations abroad.
Italy has troops deployed in Afghanistan, Lebanon and Kosovo and is involved in NATO's military operations in Libya, despite the objections of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, Berlusconi's coalition ally.
The League, lead by populist Umberto Bossi, has called for a dramatic reduction in Italy's military presence abroad to free up public funds.
Some 7,200 Italian troops were deployed in 28 countries as of June 30, according to the defense ministry website: 4,200 troops in Afghanistan, 1,700 in Lebanon and 650 in the Balkans.
The finance ministry said July 6 it aimed to save 40 billion euros ($57.1 billion) over the next four years.