NATO beefs up Kosovo security ahead of tense vote

NATO on Saturday said it had strengthened its peacekeeping force in Kosovo amid mounting tensions ahead of parliamentary elections early next month.

The Western military alliance said the 200 additional Italian soldiers would further buttress the NATO-led KFOR force in the coming months.

“Today, Italian troops from KFOR’s reserves completed their arrival … reinforcing KFOR’s presence in Kosovo,” a press release said.

KFOR consists of approximately 4,500 troops provided by 29 Allied and partner countries.

NATO said the newly-arrived “Italian mechanised infantry brigade ‘Sassari’, will carry out a range of activities, together with KFOR troops”.

The force “will be deployed in response to any relevant developments in the security situation including during the election period.”

Kosovo’s political parties are on the campaign trail ahead of the February 9 parliamentary election.

On Wednesday, Kosovo authorities raided and closed 10 Belgrade-linked local government offices in ethnic Serb areas — the latest move to dismantle the so-called parallel system of social services and political offices financed by Serbia’s government inside Kosovo.

In the past year, Kosovo authorities have effectively outlawed the Serbian dinar, closed banks that relied on the currency and shuttered post offices where pension payments could be cashed.

Kosovo Serbs can no longer drive cars with Serbia plates and must have local driving licences.

Belgrade and representatives of the ethnic Serbs condemned the move, blaming the Kosovo government for exercising pressure on the Serb minority to prevent them from voting in the February election.

The KFOR international peacekeeper mission was launched to maintain security and freedom of movement in Kosovo after a bloody 1998-1999 war between independence-seeking ethnic Albanians and Serbian armed force.

A decade after the war, Pristina declared independence, which Serbia and the Kosovo Serb minority do not recognise.