Serbia Says To Fight Kosovo Army Diplomatically

Many commanders in the new Kosovo Security Force are veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

 The creation of a new Kosovo army is a threat to Serbian national security and Serbia will use all diplomatic efforts to fight it, its foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Kosovo declared independence last February, angering Belgrade which considers the majority-Albanian territory in the Balkans part of Serbia.

Many commanders in the new Kosovo Security Force are veterans of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought Serb forces trying to crush the separatist insurgency in Kosovo in 1998-99.

"There is no other way that Serbia can perceive the so-called Kosovo Security Force, but a direct threat to its national security and a direct threat to peace and stability in the region of the Western Balkans," Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic told a news conference during a visit to Slovenia.

"We're going to continue protesting strongly using all diplomatic efforts and all diplomatic tools ... to bring about a process that is going to have the effect of the unforming of this paramilitary group," he added, speaking in English.

Kosovo's multiethnic force, which was launched on Wednesday, will have 2,500 personnel and 800 reservists but it will take a few years before it becomes fully operational.

Belgrade and the Serb minority of about 120,000 among two million Albanians in Kosovo see the new force as the continuation of that fight dating back to the 1990s.

Jeremic said the new Kosovo Security Forces violated United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. Adopted in 1999, the resolution had among other conditions required that the KLA be demilitarised.

The new force will replace the Kosovo Protection Corps, a 3,500-strong civil protection force that was mostly composed of former KLA guerrillas who fought against Serbian rule.