Serb List rejects possibility of supporting "Kosovo Army"

Serb List rejects possibility of supporting "Kosovo Army"

Simic said that the Serb List continues to regard KFOR, which arrived in 1999 with the consent of Belgrade, as the only armed force in Kosovo and Metohija, according to UN Security Council Resolution 1244.

In his statement for the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti, he thus reacted to the claims made by the president of the temporary institutions in Pristina, Hashim Thaci, who said the so-called Kosovo Army would be formed by the end of this year - i.e., that the Kosovo Security Forces would be transformed into armed forces.

Thaci said that establishing "the army" by the end of the year was "an obligation" of the new Kosovo government.

But political representatives of Serbs are warning that without the consent of minority communities - i.e., two thirds of the votes of non-Albanian members of the Assembly, including those from the Serb List - it will be impossible to pass a law on the formation of "the Kosovo Army."

"In the pre-election program with which we participated in the recent parliamentary elections, we announced our position on the so-called Kosovo Army, and we have been supported by 98 percent of Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. That means that we will not change this position now, and will not support the formation of an armed force," explained Simic.