Kosova
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Kosovo Launches New Army
http://www.spiegel.de/international/...602635,00.htmlKosovo unveiled its new army on Wednesday, which will operate under the supervision of NATO forces. Many of the new commanders are veterans of the insurgency against Serbia, and Belgrade says it will use all the diplomatic tools available to oppose the new force.
It is in the natural order of things that when a country gains independence the former freedom fighters take on the role of professional soldiers in their new homeland -- and Kosovo is no exception. The new Kosovo armed forces took over security duties on Wednesday, less than a year after the territory declared independence from Serbia. Belgrade is furious and says it will oppose the new army diplomatically.
The Kosovo Security Force (KSF) officially came into being on Wednesday and many of its commanders are veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the group that fought Serb forces back in the 1990s. It was former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's brutal crackdown on the insurgency led by the KLA that prompted the NATO-led bombardment of Serbia in 1999.
The new force, which replaces a civilian emergency organization, will have 2,500 personnel and another 800 reservists but it will take some years before it becomes fully operational. The lightly armed troops will fulfil security duties in Kosovo but will remain under the supervision of NATO's 15,000 peacekeepers who are in charge of overall security.
The KSF's new commander Lieutenant General Sylejman Selimi, a former rebel fighter himself, called the troops a "professional force that will work in close cooperation with NATO."
"We're at the beginning of a new phase," he said. "This force has become a reality."
Belgrade has been quick to voice its anger at the creation of the force in a territory it still claims as part of Serbia. "There is no other way that Serbia can perceive the so-called Kosovo Security Force, but as a direct threat to its national security and a direct threat to peace and stability in the region of the western Balkans," Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told a news conference on Wednesday. "We're going to continue protesting strongly using all diplomatic efforts and all diplomatic tools," he added.
Meanwhile, Goran Bogdanovic, Serbia's minister for Kosovo affairs, told radio station B92 in Belgrade that the creation of the force could only worsen the situation "at a time when Kosovo remains a tinderbox, when no one trust's Kosovo's so-called state bodies."
Kosovo, which is 90 percent ethnic Albanian, declared independence from Serbia in February 2008. It had been administered by the United Nations ever since NATO halted the Serb crackdown on the insurgency in 1999. The Serb minority of about 120,000 out of a total population of 2 million refuse to recognize the government in Pristina.
On Tuesday, Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Tahci told a news conference that the new KSF would be a "multiethnic force and will serve the country and all of its people." However, Serb leaders in Kosovo and the government in Belgrade have asked Kosovo Serbs not to join the force.
Countries that have recognized the new state have pledged to help the new force, which will be trained by British NATO officers, wear uniforms provided by the United States and drive vehicles provided by Germany. Initially it will have no tanks, heavy artillery or airplanes.
Serbia's President Boris Tadic has vowed to demand from the UN and NATO that the force be disbanded. Serb Foreign Minister Jeremic said that the new force was illegal, claiming it violated a UN resolution that called for the KLA to be demilitarized, and said it was "totally unacceptable to Serbia."
MultiethnicGee, I wonder how that's going to work out.
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He doesn't have body armor or even a helmet! 
Originally Posted by KdFWagen
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