Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic has ordered the nation’s army on full alert after weeks of rising tensions in neighboring Kosovo where the local Serb minority has been confronting the authorities over new registration requirements, putting up road blockades and holding protests that threaten to tip into violence, the defense ministry says.
“The President of the Republic of Serbia, as the supreme commander, ordered this evening that the Serbian Army is on highest combat readiness,” Defense Minister Milos Vucevic said in an emailed statement Dec. 26.
Around 100,000 ethnic Serbs living in Kosovo have been demanding the release of several members of their community held by the predominantly ethnic Albanian government. The potential flash point is northern Kosovo, a border area and a home to the biggest remaining Serb community since Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.
