Kosovo claims Serbia violated agreement on how it uses US-made equipment

ROME and MILAN — Kosovo’s defense minister claims the Serbian government may have violated an agreement reached with the United States on how to use U.S. military equipment.

On September 24, about 30 armed Serbs entered a Kosovo village and killed a Kosovo policeman during a firefight, then fled to a monastery where police killed three of the ethnic Serbs while recapturing the site.

According to Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, the Serbian paramilitary force trained in Serbia before the raid. He produced video that allegedly shows them training in what appears to be an American-made military Humvee, made by AM General.

Kosovo Defense Minister Ejup Maqedonci denounced the alleged use of Humvees.

“The rules that apply to us — as I’m sure other countries do — to secure military-grade equipment, like the military Humvees that are used, is that there has to be congressional approval and an end-user certificate.” Maqedonci told Defense News. “These systems are designed so that US military equipment is not used in terrorist attacks. This case raises many questions about Serbia’s violations of such agreements.”

The fighting was the latest outbreak of violence in Kosovo, which declared independence from the Balkan nation of Serbia in 2008 and now oversees a restive Serb minority of about 50,000.

Serbia, which does not recognize Kosovo’s independence, accuses Kosovo of mistreating Serb residents.

Kosovo claims Serbia is fomenting violent resistance by arming the community.

The claim

Days after the battle, Kosovo’s prime minister released drone footage that appeared to show a paramilitary exercise taking place at night.

It claimed to show Serbian paramilitary forces training at Pasuljanske Livade, a military base inside Serbia, four days before the attack.

A Kosovo government spokesman claimed the video was captured by Kosovo police from Serbian paramilitaries.

In one of the videos, a fighter is seen firing a gun mounted on the roof turret of a Humvee military vehicle.

“The attacks enjoyed the full support and planning of the Serbian state,” according to Kurti — a claim Serbia has since denied.

In 2012 and 2017, the US donated a total of 40 Humvee light armored vehicles to the Serbian Army.

Serbia also bought Humvees from US company AM General, which delivered 66 vehicles in July 2023 — part of an order for a total of 118 vehicles.

The answer

A State Department spokesman told Defense News that the administration is “looking into this matter.”

“The United States takes seriously any allegations involving US-supplied equipment anywhere in the world,” the spokesman added.

A spokesperson for AM General told Defense News that the company “cannot speak to the customer’s use of the vehicles.”

“AM General successfully delivered vehicles to Serbia after [Direct Commercial Sales] process, which includes securing proper authorization through an export license from the US government,” the company representative noted.

The Direct Commercial Sales process is used to export U.S. military goods from a U.S. company that manufactures under a State Department license, as opposed to a foreign military sales process, which is organized by the Department of Defense.

For its part, Serbia has denied involvement in the invasion of Kosovo.

When asked to confirm whether the video shows a Serbian team training with a Serbian military Humvee, the Serbian Ministry of Defense referred Defense News to a press conference held on October 2 by Defense Minister Miloš Vučević and Chief of Army Staff General Milan Mojilović , “where the allegations your questions refer to have been disproved.”

During the press conference, Vucevic denied the video showing the use of a Serbian Humvee in training paramilitaries.

“The fact that someone is playing thermal imaging recordings from an obscure location, with completely unknown people and faces, can mean absolutely nothing,” he said.