The Serbian Defense Ministry said yesterday that it has cut the number of troops deployed along the border with Kosovo by nearly half, from 8,350 to 4,500. Serbian Army Chief of Staff Gen. Milan Mojsilovic said at a press conference that troop numbers in the past had reached 14,000 soldiers and that, unlike several times in the recent past, the army had not raised its combat readiness, so “from the military point of view I see no reason for such [critical] comments” by both U.S. and European Union officials, reported The Associated Press. Mojsilovic and Serbia’s Defense Minister Milos Vucevic also denied claims by Kosovo officials that the Serbian army trained and armed the group of some 30 men involved in the Sept. 24 shootout in the northern Kosovo village of Banjska that left a Kosovo police officer and three insurgents dead.
The State Department welcomed the Serbian announcement. “We will be looking for further confirmation. But if true, that would be a welcome step,” said spokesman Matthew Miller. Miller said the United States had not verified the withdrawal and that Washington continues to be “concerned about the cycle of rising tensions and sporadic violence in northern Kosovo.”
