Serbia believes that the formation of a so-called Kosovo security force was completely unacceptable, Serbian Defense Minister Dragan Sutanovac said on Saturday.
"Serbia disagrees and has no understanding whatsoever for the formation of the so-called Kosovo security force," Sutanovac told reporters in the village of Rasevac, which is near the administrative line between central Serbia and Kosovo, the official Serbian news agency Tanjug reported.
Sutanovac voiced his expectation that those who had made such a decision would realize they were wrong.
The Kosovo security force, which will have a permanent force of 2,500 and an 800-strong reserve, is to become fully operational in September 2009.
NATO forces will help train the fledging Kosovo security force. A NATO-sponsored fund, which will support the formation of security forces in Kosovo, will focus on providing housing and communications for the soldiers, setting up a recruitment system and providing training.
Having been run by the UN mission by nearly nine years, ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in February despite strong opposition from Serbia and Kosovo's ethnic Serbs. However, Serbia has accepted the deployment of the EU mission in December after securing assurance that the mission will be neutral about Kosovo's status.
According to a decree signed on Saturday by Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu, Sulejman Selimi is to become the first commander of the Kosovo security force.
Selimi, 38, was one of the founders of the Kosovo Liberation Army that fought for independence for the Albanian-dominated territory. He became commander of the Kosovo Protection Corps after NATO bombings forced the Serbian army out of Kosovo in 1999 and the NATO-led Kosovo peacekeeping force took over security.
Source:Xinhua
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