Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic gave an “emergency” address to his country on Sunday afternoon, without proving that Kosovo will attack Serbia at midnight.
The remainder of the speech will give you some insight into what's going on.
“The situation for our people in Kosovo and Metohija is very complicated and complex (…) many people have reduced their attitude towards Kosovo and Metohija to sloganeering in which they say ‘Kosovo is Serbia' and that's all, but I don't think we have ever been in a more complex and difficult situation than it is today” Vucic said in his speech to the general public on the current situation in Kosovo.
He added that the government in Pristina is seeking to capitalize on the global situation in international relations at the moment.
“They took a decision to impose conditions they do not have the right to impose, mostly for those located in northern Kosovo as well as Metohija. They had already sent their forces equipped with fuel weighing 21 tonnes, plus other items at the border crossings for administrative purposes of Jarinje and Brnjak in order to shut down all people who carry Serbian identification cards. The process will begin tomorrow night at midnight, and in the meantime, they'll try to persuade the Serbs to surrender their KM plates.” declared Vucic.
For those who do not have a place of work with clocks that display the time in all the capital cities of the world, midnight for Serbia will be 6 p.m. EDT.
Background
Following the death of Josip Broz Tito Yugoslavia began to slide into war. In 1991, the Croats along with Slovenia declared independence and war began to break out in Croatia as well as “Yugoslavia” in 1991. This war led to Slovenian independence following the “ten-day war” and Croatia's independence in 1995. Bosnia and Herzegovina declared independence in 1992. The war erupted and was resolved in 1995, with an acknowledgment of Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence. Bosnia as well as Herzegovina. Macedonia was peacefully disbanded in 1992. The state that was created by Serbia and Montenegro ended in 2006 after Montenegro declared its independence. Kosovo is an Albanian and predominantly Muslim province, was the site of an insurgency between 1998 and 1999. It was ended by the withdrawal of Serbian troops and the introduction into NATO's peacekeeping organization known as Kosovo Force (KFOR). The fact is, Kosovo remained part of Serbia.
The year 2008 was the time that Kosovo was declared independent in 2008. Serbia did not acknowledge Kosovo as an independent country. A majority of the members in NATO as well as the EU and about half of the UN members acknowledged the Kosovo nation.
In actuality, Kosovo's government appears more like the operation of an autonomous republic and with Serbia having a large influence in the selection of Kosovo's security forces.
Crisis
From 2008 onwards, Serbia as well as Kosovo have experienced a conflict. The primary cause of the conflict is Kosovo imposition of reciprocal treatment on Serbs. For instance, Serbia required Kosovo citizens to carry a specific ID card in order to enter Serbia in the first place, whereas Serbian citizens required only passports. However, the Kosovo government of Prime Albin Kurti changed that. Albin Kurti changed that to make it mandatory for Serbs to carry a specific identity card that was issued by the Kosovo government.
The current round of hardball has been played because Kurti wants to prove that Kosovo is an independent country. This was done in a unilateral manner and without the EU's mediation process to settle “bilateral issues,” which undermines Vucic's claim that Kosovo is part of Serbia and that everything can be controlled.
Evidently, shots have been shot at least from Serbia towards Kosovo or, at the very least, fired from Serbia close to Kosovo. Nobody has been injured however it can create tension.
KFOR is on high alert and has deployed its forces into the area of trouble.
The Russians to no one's surprise have taken a stand for the Serb allies.
Overall there's plenty of alarmist information being circulated. The probability of having shots fired in situations that NATO forces could be at risk is about zero. However, this is an effective method to allow Russia to cause a bit of disturbance to upset areas in Eastern Europe. Although this may seem like an unimportant thing, be aware of which country started World War I and thought that it would be in a similar situation to NATO. Based on what we've seen this year it's not a good idea to dismiss any possibility as unattainable.
