Self-defense OK’d for Kosovo peacekeepers

July 29, 2011|Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo - American and French peacekeepers were told yesterday to fire their weapons in defense if attacked at border posts on Kosovo’s northern boundary with Serbia, a day after the crossings were set ablaze by Serbs armed with firebombs, a NATO spokesman said.

There have been days of mounting tension between ethnic Albanians and minority Serbs after Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci ordered special police units to take over two disputed border posts that were previously manned by Serb members of the police under EU supervision.

One Kosovo policeman died in the operation.

“We are in command of those places,’’ NATO spokesman Captain Hans Wichter said. “If we are threatened, we have the right to use weapons.’’ He said the area was “declared a military zone,’’ meaning the alliance makes all decisions related to security.

NATO troops were attacked late Wednesday by machine guns and antitank rockets as they moved to secure the border posts, the top NATO commander in Kosovo, Major General Erhard Buehler, said. No injures were reported. They took control of the border posts yesterday.

Thaci’s goal in trying to control the crossings was to enforce Kosovo’s ban on goods from Serbia in the Serb-run area, which has rejected Kosovo’s 2008 independence.

Serbs object to Kosovo customs posts being set up on the crossings with Serbia because it weakens Serbia’s claim to the territory and its influence in the Serb-dominated region.

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