German expert: Belgrade is waging a hybrid war against Kosovo, KFOR forces were also attacked by agents of the Serbian BIA

German expert Konrad Clewing says that Belgrade is waging a hybrid war against Kosovo.

Clewing for Deutsche Welle claims that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is now reusing Kosovo to mitigate or sidestep internal protests against him.

According to him, the powers of the West should send clear political signals to the region and that Kosovo should not be weakened in its Euro-Atlantic perspective.

The situation in the north of Kosovo is not improving. Serbia is detaining three Kosovar policemen, who, according to Kosovo, were kidnapped from its territory, there are attacks on the Kosovar police, while people have not been able to move freely on the Serbia-Kosovo border for several days. How worrying are the current tensions?

They are troubling, as you see how Vucic is now reusing Kosovo to soften or sidestep domestic protests against him. It remains to be seen whether he will succeed.

The fact that the West has recently taken a one-sided stance, on the side of Serbia, is also worrying, even though the NATO forces in the north of Kosovo (specifically in Zveçan) were attacked not only by representatives of the local population, but also by agents of the Serbian Secret Service (BIA) and the police. The West was silent for a while about the arrest of three Kosovar policemen and so far has not strongly condemned this action.

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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said earlier this week that the alliance could take other steps if necessary. Could it happen that the so-called "Republic of KFOR" will be created in the north of the country, to use a term of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama?

This is a selection of words that comes from Rama's wild imagination. Of course, there will be no "Republic of KFOR" in the north. I don't think KFOR would want to take on a mission that is doomed to fail. KFOR does not want to send thousands of soldiers there and get stuck dealing with daily police issues. But it would be very reasonable if the international presence in northern Kosovo were to increase, if EULEX and KFOR - similar to what happened in Eastern Slavonia from 1995 to 1998 - took over for a while the administration of the north of Kosovo.

This would end the power vacuum in northern Kosovo and prevent Serbia from filling it. The latter would be harmful not only for the north of Kosovo, but above all for Kosovo as a whole, because at the moment it is not possible to predict how far Serbia wants to go. For a long time, it was thought that it aimed only at the north of Kosovo. Now I have serious doubts about this.

What are the reasons that make you suspicious?

There are many indicators that make me suspicious. Vucic's refusal to sign the Ohrid Agreement and Serbia's intention to give autonomy to the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority. In addition, for more than a year the Serbian government and the Serbian media it controls have severely hardened their rhetoric.

It is no longer about the rights of the Serbs, but about the alleged systematic "terror" that is being exercised against the Serbs by the Kosovo authorities. Even Kosovo itself is being systematically delegitimized. The Belgrade government and its media now constantly use the term "so-called" Kosovo authorities, and Kosovo is rewritten in quotes as "Kosova and Metohija" or "KiM". These are entirely revisionist and warmongering terms.

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And from February onwards, since the agreement was signed, this language has been getting worse and worse. Serbia tries to anathema Kosovo's representatives in the media in dialogue, so a consumer of Serbian media may wonder how you can pretend to agree and sit down in conversations with Kosovars. There is only one reason why this revisionism has no chance of turning into war: That is the presence of KFOR. But the fact is that Belgrade is currently waging a hybrid war.

If this is the case, why are the US and the EU putting pressure on Kosovo?

I can explain it with three points. First, Kosovo's major allies – the US and the EU – are seriously unhappy that they are not finding the same credibility in the current leadership of Kosovo that they found in the previous governments. Like it or not, this is part of the diplomatic tradition between great powers and smaller states, and it has its own logic and weight.

The other point is that many Western actors still believe that Serbia is the main player in the Balkans, especially given the threats coming from Russia towards Eastern Europe. But how one can seriously believe that precisely a country, which has been oscillating between East and West for a long time, can really serve as a stabilizer, if it does not criticize it, this is a great mystery to me.

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The West is miscalculating here. The third point has to do with the behavior of the Kosovo government, which, not only did not coordinate the police operation around the municipalities in the north of Kosovo with the allies, but instead informed KFOR about the operation only a short time ago. KFOR was thus forced to be involved in an operation against its will. It is not surprising that the Westerners and Kosovo's allies see this as a provocation.

What needs to happen now for there to be an extension?

The West must send clear political signals to the region. Contrary to what the Americans say in recent weeks, Kosovo should not be weakened in its Euro-Atlantic perspective, but strengthened. Apart from Serbia, there is no doubt that Kosovo should also be more pragmatic. Especially presenting a realistic concept for the Association of Municipalities with a Serbian majority.

This concept is urgent not only for an acute extension, but also as a long-term gesture towards the Serbian minority, it would stabilize the status of Kosovo as a state, but it would also be an investment in the Serbian public opinion of the future, which is represented today in protests against the government in Belgrade. /Deutsche Welle/