Kosovo Accuses Serbia Of Trying To Annex Its Northern Territory

JAKARTA - Kosovo authorities say they have evidence that Serbia is trying to annex the country's northern region and the attackers have been preparing for this for a long time at military bases.

"This terrorist organization has only one goal: to annex the northern part of the Republic of Kosovo," said Kosovo Interior Minister Xhelai Svecia.

"In order to realize its goals, Serbian institutions are managing their military, logistics and financial capacity," Svecia said at a press conference at a police camp in the northern city of Mitrovica, as reported by ANTARA from Anadolu, Monday, October 2.

According to Svecia, Serbian President Aleksander Vucic, Defense Minister Milos Vucevic and Military Chief of Staff Milan Mojsilovic are directly involved in the effort.

"The Serbian president tried to deny the fact that his country was involved in the planning and execution of the September 24 attacks, but the documents we released earlier and the recordings we will release today are clear evidence of the involvement of the military and state structures in this organization," he said.

On September 24, clashes broke out in the village of Banjska in northern Kosovo near the Serbian border where a group of armed Serbs blocked a bridge with two trucks. A shootout broke out after the group opened fire, leaving one policeman dead and another injured.

After that a large number of security forces were deployed in the region, and the Brnjak border bordering Kosovo and Serbia was closed.

The area has been the scene of unrest since April, when local ethnic Serbs boycotted elections in northern Kosovo, following protests against the election of an ethnic Albanian mayor. Until now, Albanians are the largest ethnic group in Kosovo, following Serbs, half of whom live in the north of the country.

Amid election-related unrest, NATO peacekeepers were deployed, including a group of additional reinforcements from Turkey.

Last week saw a “large Serbian military deployment along the border with Kosovo,” according to the US National Security Council, whose spokesman called the deployment a “gravely destabilizing development.”

On Saturday, Kosovo asked Serbia to withdraw its troops.

Vucic later denied Serbia was involved in the military build-up along the border with Kosovo.

"A campaign of lies... has been launched against us Serbs," Vucic said in a video posted on Instagram on Sunday.

"They have lied about the presence of our military forces... in fact, they are disturbed that Serbia has what they describe as advanced weapons," he said.

Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008 and received recognition from many countries, including Turkey. However, Serbia never recognized Kosovo and stated that the region was still part of Serbia.