MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/. Kosovo commando forces’ intrusion into Serbian enclaves in the north of the territory was a provocation aimed at intimidating the Serbs and an attempt to put pressure on Belgrade, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on the Foreign Ministry’s website on Monday.
"Crude intrusion by Serbian police commando forces into Serbian areas in the north of the territory on September 29 running counter to the existing agreements between Belgrade and Pristina on that score was a provocation aimed at intimidating Kosovo’s Serbs and putting pressure on Serbia," Zakharova said.
She warned that the Kosovo authorities’ actions might "entail another bloodshed in Kosovo and destabilization in the Balkans in general."
"Further attempts by Pristina to establish control over Serbian enclaves by force will foment inter-ethnic tensions and reduce to nothing many years of efforts by the international community for the sake of peace post-conflict settlement," Zakharova said.
"We condemn the passive stance taken by the international Kosovo force KFOR, which took no action, although under the UN Security Council’s mandate it is obliged to maintain peace and security in the territory," Zakharova said.
On September 29, more than one hundred Kosovo commandos intruded into Kosovo’s Serbian enclaves in the north of the territory, which is prohibited under international treaties. The commandos took positions around Gazivoda Lake, put under control the Gazivoda hydropower plant and intruded into the Ecology and Development Center in Zubin Potok. As the chief of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija of the Republic of Serbia, Marko Juric said earlier, it was done to maintain security during the leader of the self-proclaimed territory Hashim Thaci’s trip to the north of the region. In response, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic alerted the armed forces and expressed protest to NATO’s Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.