Petkovic: Kurti announced formation of a gendarmerie for election campaign purposes, KFOR the only legitimate armed force in Kosovo and Metohija

The Director of the Serbian Government Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, stated that plans to form a Kosovo Gendarmerie were announced as part of Albin Kurti’s election campaign, stressing that KFOR remains the only legitimate armed force in Kosovo.

“Albin Kurti’s pre-election fantasies and desperate moves, through which he is announcing the formation of some sort of Gendarmerie unit, have been launched with the aim of gaining cheap political points, because his campaign is obviously not going as he had imagined. There is neither a basis nor room for Kurti to form any paramilitary or parapolice units outside the existing agreements, let alone deploy them in Serbian areas in the north of Kosovo and Metohija,” the statement from the Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija reads.

Petkovic further states that KFOR is the only legal and legitimate armed force in Kosovo, “responsible also for control and patrols along the administrative line, and Kurti knows this very well and cannot change reality through photo opportunities and promises during an election campaign.”

“Furthermore, Article 9 of the Brussels Agreement states that the composition of the so-called Kosovo Police in the north shall reflect the ethnic composition of the population of these four municipalities, while the Implementation Plan clearly stipulates that no new police formation in the north can be established without the consent of the Working Group, which, in addition to Pristina, includes representatives of Belgrade and the European Union, and without whose approval such a move is not feasible. Therefore, Albin Kurti’s latest pre-election activities are nothing more than an empty show, as our people would say,” Petkovic concluded.

Self-Determination leader and Kosovo caretaker Prime Minister Albin Kurti announced that he intends to establish a Gendarmerie during the next mandate.

“We will establish a Gendarmerie in the next mandate. The Gendarmerie will primarily deal with combating crime and corruption in border areas. It will fight terrorism... The Gendarmerie is something between the police and the army. You know, Italy has the Carabinieri, and France has the Gendarmerie. We will have our own Gendarmerie in the Republic of Kosovo,” Kurti stated.