Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps the Kosovo Force is taking to prevent intercommunal violence in Kosovo; and whether they consider that it should increase its activity.

Kosovo Force (KFOR) continues to have a Kosovo-wide role particularly in the Serbian majority north of Kosovo. It also has a specific role in protecting Serbian Orthodox sites, yet in the south of Kosovo this is coming to an end. KFOR is currently in the process of transferring responsibility for these sites to the Kosovo Police. This is done in consultation with the Serbian Orthodox Church and taking into account the political and security conditions on the ground. The monastery at Decani remains under KFOR protection and the Patriarchate in Peja is currently undergoing a transition to police protection.

While there has been a slight increase in incidents of intercommunal violence, mainly due to the reverberations following a recent football match between Albania and Serbia, we do not see an overall trend of an increase in violence in general or a need for KFOR to increase activity.