Serbian troops on Kosovo border in state of ‘combat readiness’

BELGRADE – December 27 (ONLINE) Serbia has placed its security forces on the border with Kosovo in a “full state of combat readiness”, senior officials have said, amid increasingly strained relations with its neighbour and despite calls by the European Union and NATO for tensions to ease between the once wartime foes.

“Serbia’s president … ordered the Serbian army to be on the highest level of combat readiness that is to the level of the use of armed force” Serbia’s Defence Minister Milos Vucevic said in a statement late on Monday.

He added that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic also ordered the special armed forces to be beefed up from the existing 1,500 to 5,000, Vucevic said.

The country’s Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic said he “ordered the full combat readiness” of police and other security units and that they be placed under the command of the army chief of staff according to “their operational plan”.

He said in a statement that he acted on the orders of President Vucic so that “all measures be taken to protect the Serbian people in Kosovo”.

The orders from Vucic come after Serbian army chief General Milan Mojsilovic was dispatched to the border with Kosovo on Sunday, though it was not immediately clear what the new orders mean on the border where Serbian troops have been on alert for some time.