Kosovo moves to create national army amid Serb objections

Parliament in Kosovo, which relies on NATO troops for its protection, voted on Thursday to set up a 5,000-strong national army though its Serb minority said the move was illegal.

Three laws promoted by the Kosovo government and passed on a first reading by a parliamentary vote on Thursday, upgraded the mandate of the lightly-armed domestic Kosovo Security Force (KSF) to transform into an army ... The draft laws were supported on Thursday by 98 deputies in the 120-seat parliament, though the vote was boycotted by the legislature's 11 Serb deputies.

The draft laws envisage an army of 5,000 active soldiers and 3,000 reservists. The present KSF security force is a lightly armed, 2,500-strong force trained by NATO and tasked with crisis response, civil protection and ordinance disposal.

NATO says it has no plans to leave the territory just now, but it suggested that any change to the status of the KSF might lead to a reduction in its forces there. "Any change in the structure, mandate and mission of the Kosovo Security Forces is for the Kosovo authorities to decide," a NATO official told Reuters in an e-mailed answer. "NATO supports the Kosovo Security Force under its current mandate. Should this mandate evolve, the North Atlantic Council will have to re-examine the level of NATO's engagement in Kosovo. We cannot predict decisions by the North Atlantic Council."

https://www.dailysabah.com/balkans/2018/10/20/kosovo-moves-to-create-national-army-amid-serb-objections