Kosovo: Pristina establishes armed forces
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 4 March 2014 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Kosovo: Pristina establishes armed forces, 4 March 2014, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/534d2e3cfe.html [accessed 17 September 2023] |
| Comments | All reference to Kosovo should be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
March 04, 2014
By RFE/RL's Balkan Service
Prime Minister Hashim Thaci also announced the Ministry of Security has been renamed the Defense Ministry.
Kosovo's armed forces will include 5,000 soldiers and 3,000 reservists.
The Kosovo Security Force was 2,500-strong and was overseen by a NATO-led peacekeeping mission on the ground since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999.
Thaci said the move was "in the interests of all countries in the region, without exceptions."
The decision came under fire in Serbia, which rejects the independence majority ethnic Albanian Kosovo declared in 2008.
Serbia's caretaker Prime Minister Ivica Dacic said he had received guarantees from NATO that Kosovo soldiers would not enter Serb enclaves in the north.
With reporting by dpa and B92
Link to original story on RFE/RL website