In Kosovo, the reserve remains in order
(BRUSSELS2) AF Rasmussen, NATO Secretary General, once again launched an appeal on Wednesday (December 7) to unblock the situation in northern Kosovo, condemning the policy of blockades set up by the Kosovar Serbs. “ Restrictions on freedom of movement are not acceptable. The use of violence is not acceptable. In particular, the 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 barrier - the Secretary General of the Alliance remains firm. “We need to see more.” Freedom of movement must be completely restored in northern Kosovo. »
Withdrawal process on stand bye
From there, to interrupting 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 step 2 but we are not yet at step 3 » explained to me a specialist in the file at the Alliance. In fact, for now, we're just slowing down this process. According to a final report, the KFOR workforce today stands at 6.600 soldiers on site. Which is all in all sufficient, especially if we carry out some redeployments towards the north. This figure also includes the reserve of 700 men (provided by the Germans and Austrians) who were called in as reinforcements at the start of the events. It is up to the KFOR commander 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 Atlantic Alliance Council) to decide whether to take step 3 to speed up the process.
