The landing of the military transport plane of Great Britain, which is part of the KFOR contingent, has caused Serbian officials to react by spreading misinformation that Kosovo is arming itself. But KFOR has clarified that a British Air Force plane has landed at Pristina Airport to carry out an auxiliary operation for the British ground forces serving in Kosovo.
After this announcement, the president of Serbia, Aleksandër Vucic, reacted by stating that "No one has the right to arm Pristina! Vucic: We understood the message". According to him, something similar has happened in the past, where the USA helped Kosovo with weapons, while Turkey trains them to be pilots of some planes that they may have in the future.
The statement of the president of Serbia is not based on facts.
The same misinformation of the president of Serbia, unverified and unsupported by facts, was distributed on April 18 by KosovoOnline.
In addition to President Vucic, other Serbian officials have claimed without facts that Kosovo is being armed by Great Britain.
The Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin, in his statement to Pink TV, said that sending weapons from Great Britain to Kosovo is a hostile act, because "you cannot arm terrorists and hope for peace".
In support of Vucic, the director of the so-called "Office for Kosovo" in the government of Serbia, Petar Petkovic, reacted by saying that the president's statement regarding the arming of Kosovo by Great Britain is an indisputable fact and that action violated the Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council.
Among others, the Chairman of the Commission for Kosovo in the Assembly of Serbia, Milovan Dreçun, had a similar reaction, who said that the United States of America, Great Britain, Turkey and Germany play a major role in arming the Kosovo army, and this is something planned and done systematically. "The purpose of the procurement of weapons, primarily helicopters, howitzers, mortars, reconnaissance drones, is the violent occupation of northern Kosovo," Dreçun said.
This claim of Dreçuni was also shared on KosovoOnline.
Even the Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Bërnabić, has stated that she is worried about the arming of Pristina. According to her, such an action carries serious orders.
"Kurti says we're arming ourselves, while someone else is arming him. "I am worried about how much support there has been for the Serbs not being allowed the basic right to vote first in the referendum and then in the elections," said ka theksuar Bernabiq.
All these claims of Serbian officials have been denied by the Embassy of Great Britain in Belgrade, through an announcement on their Facebook page, calling them fabrications.
The prime minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, has also spoken about this. He stated that the statements coming from Belgrade should never be taken as facts.
Gazeta Express has interpreted this statement by Kurti as an attack on journalists in the news published under the title "Kurti lowly attacks journalists, considers them manipulated by Belgrade".
*This article is published as part of the Western Balkans Regional Initiative against disinformation. “Western Balkans Anti-Disinformation Hub: exposing malign influences through watchdog journalism.”
