Berlin. January 8th. INTERFAX - The NATO Mission in Kosovo (KFOR) has rejected Belgrade's request for the return of Serbian security forces to the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday.
"I didn't expect a different answer from KFOR," the Associated Press (AP) quoted him as saying.
The Serbian President mentioned a recent incident in which an off-duty officer of the Kosovo security forces wounded two Serbs with firearms, including an 11-year-old boy; the shooter was then arrested. Vucic, in turn, noted that Western countries "do not care when Serbian boys are injured."
AP reminds that Serbia sent a corresponding request to NATO in mid-December. At that moment, tensions escalated in the autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija, after the Kosovo police detained several former Serbian policemen on charges of crimes during the 1998-1999 conflict. In response, Serbs living in Kosovo erected barricades on highways in the north of the province.
However, Vucic later called on the Serbs to dismantle the barricades, saying that the protesters would not be prosecuted.
