Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic has accused Pristina of dangerously stoking tensions after his Kosovar counterpart, Xhelal Svecla, said that all police on patrol in the former Serbian province would be equipped with rifles.
Svecla announced the move on January 12 with immediate effect, ratcheting up tensions after deadly violence last year near the border between the neighboring Balkan states.
Gasic called the additional firepower for the mostly ethnic Albanian police force "extremely provocative and dangerous for increasing tensions."
SEE ALSO: Kosovars Finally Get The Visas They've Longed For (Along With A Host Of New Problems)Svecla thanked "the Croatia friendly state" in his post announcing the move.
"With the purchase of these weapons for all police patrols around the Republic of Kosovo, the efficiency in the fight against crime increases, which enables a safer environment, calmer public order, and more security for our police officers," Svecla said.
The addition of rifles to Kosovar patrols follows a deadly incident in September that sent shock waves through Kosovo and the international community, which is seeking normalized relations between Pristina and Belgrade.
An ethnic Albanian Kosovar police officer was left dead after the September encounter with masked commandos allegedly led by a Kosovar Serb politician who has long enjoyed Belgrade's support and is now thought to be in Serbia.
Three of the gunmen were also killed amid an hours-long standoff at the Banjska Monastery complex near Kosovo's border with Serbia that Svecla and Kosovo's president and prime minister blamed on Serbia and its proxies.
NATO KFOR peacekeepers were dragged into the violence last May when angry Serbs who live in the mostly Serb north mobilized to resist the forcible installment of ethnic Albanians after mostly boycotted local elections.
International pressure has mounted on both sides to make progress in EU-moderated negotiations that have lasted more than a decade to regularize diplomatic and other relations between Kosovo and the much larger Serbia.
Belgrade and its ally Russia still refuse to recognize Kosovo's sovereignty since a 2008 declaration of independence that followed a decade of UN administration after a bloody ethnically fueled war.