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I wouldn’t get too worked up over it just yet. This started out as just another license plate dust up. Those have been going on for over a decade now. (License plates can get folks all riled up in former Yugoslavia, not just Serbs, but all the various peoples of former Y.)

Then another policeman tiff added to the brouhaha. Even taken together, it all would have died down again as usual, but then Kurti had to go and make a List. (You know how commies and Nazis make Lists.) Well, Lists are serious business in former Y. All sides did it during the 1990s conflicts, Croats, Muslims, Serbs, etc. They all did it.

The Serbs still have their noses out of joint about NATO failure to implement UNSC Res 1244, so they are trying to make a show of force to goad NATO into protecting the Serbs in the Mitrovica enclave (Serbia requested that KFOR send 1,000 of its force, but KFOR refused). Kurti is trying to get the KFOR troops to tear down the Serbs’ barricades there. So KFOR is caught between two conflicting requests, and so far done nothing about either as best I can tell.

Serbia is basically telling KFOR to do its job to protect the enclave per 1244, or Serbia will do it per 1244. It’s a test of 1244. If sanity prevails, KFOR will send some troops to protect the enclave and EULEX will sort out the tiff over the policeman, and some EU and NATO bigwigs will scold Kurti to over his provocative List.

It looks to me like Kurti has got too big for his britches and making mischief and needs a spanking from the Big Boys at NATO. We’ll see whether he gets it, I guess. NATO might be paranoid right now about “looking weak” in the face of “Serb aggression” (as they’ll spin it), so I’m not counting on it. But really, this could be calmed down if they’d give Kurti a dressing down and send a few hundred KFORs up there.

The List:

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/serbia-lashes-out-kosovo-for-list-of-serbs-to-be-arrested/2771569

Serb version (rather garbled, but see last paragraph):

https://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2022&mm=12&dd=23&nav_id=115114

This one is hilarious! Don’t miss it:

https://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2022&mm=12&dd=27&nav_id=115134

Sabers rattling amid rumors:

https://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics.php?yyyy=2022&mm=12&dd=26&nav_id=115131

Ref this last: If Kurti really was planning an attack on Mitrovica, then KFOR ought to spank him. It could well be just a rumor. Those happen a lot around there. We’ll see.

KFOR statement on Zubin Potok shooting incident (meh):

https://m.facebook.com/NATOKFOR/