In Kosovo, the reserve remains in order
(BRUSSELS2) NATO Secretary General AF Rasmussen again launched an appeal on Wednesday (7 December) to unblock the situation in northern Kosovo, condemning the policy of roadblocks put in place by the Serb Kosovars. " Restrictions on freedom of movement are not acceptable. The use of violence is not acceptable. In particular, attacks against our soldiers and against any member of the international missions in Kosovo are unacceptable. Although he noticed some positive steps - President Tadic's call to lift the barricades to return home, the agreement on border crossings between Belgrade and Pristina (under the aegis of the European Union), the lifting of the first dam - the Secretary General of the Alliance remains firm. “We need to see more. Freedom of movement must be fully restored in northern Kosovo. »
Withdrawal process on stand bye
From there, to interrupt the process of slow decline in numbers that began a year ago, there is a step that no one wanted to take officially. " We have passed stage 2 but we are not yet at stage 3 explained to me a specialist in the file at the Alliance. In fact, at the moment, we are simply slowing down this process. According to a final tally, the workforce of KFOR is today 6.600 soldiers on the spot. Which is all in all enough, especially if we make a few redeployments to the north. This figure also includes the reserve of 700 men (provided by the Germans and the Austrians) who were called in as reinforcements at the start of the events. It is up to the commander of Kfor to decide whether or not he can do without this reserve. On the other hand, it is up to the ambassadors of the NAC (the Council of the Atlantic Alliance) to decide whether to take step 3 to speed up the process.
