Kosovo Plans to Create Army Next Week, Drawing Anger From Serbs
- Government to skirt ethnic-Serb objections to creating army
- U.S. supports shift despite Serbia’s warning of instability
Members of the Kosovo Security Force march during a ceremony in Pristina on March 5.
Photographer: Armend Nimani/AFP via Getty Images
Kosovo will adopt laws next week to open the way to turning its lightly armed security force into an army, its parliament speaker said, drawing condemnation from its neighbor Serbia.
Kosovo’s constitution, drawn up in 2008 when it declared independence from Serbia, doesn’t allow for an army, and peacekeepers led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have been stationed there since a bombing campaign drove out Serb troops in 1999. While ethnic-Serb lawmakers have blocked attempts to change the charter and allow a military, the ethnic-Albanian dominated government is now trying to push through changes with ordinary laws.