KOSOVO: Violence Sparks Collision Course

By Apostolis Fotiadis Reprint | | Print |

Apostolis Fotiadis

MITROVICA, Kosovo, Mar 18 2008 (IPS) - Increased unrest following the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo is leading to fears of further violence in the Balkans.

The most serious incident so far came Monday in Mitrovica when the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) police force moved to evict Serbian ex-employees who had occupied the court house.

Mitrovica, the northern province of Kosovo, has a large Serb population. Kosovo itself was long the disputed southern province of Serbia, but a government backed by its largely ethnic Albanian population of two million declared independence Feb. 17.

The court house had been occupied since Friday in a symbolic gesture of denial of the newborn Kosovo state’s authority in the region. This was one of many civil disobedience actions by the Serbian population in Kosovo.

A week after the declaration, Serbian police officers working for the multi-ethnic UNMIK police ceased accepting orders from the Kosovo government in capital Pristina. Many Serb policemen are now unofficially taking orders from Belgrade.

The following week Serbian railway workers with UNMIK stopped a passenger train travelling from Zvecan, five kilometres north of Mitrovica, and declared they were joining the Serbian railway company.

Bomb attacks have driven the preparatory mission staff of the International Civilian Office out of Mitrovica. The new body, headed by the European Union, was expected to take over from the United Nations interim administration, and supervise transfer of authority to Kosovo’s state structures.

Clearly, neither the new state structures nor international forces exercise effective control over northern Kosovo.

Mitrovica marks the ethnic fault line between Kosovo’s ethnic-Albanian dominated south and its ethnic-Serb dominated north. About 120,000 of Kosovo’s population of two million are Serbs, with some 40,000 of them living in and around Mitrovica.

Kosovo has been under the protection of international troops since 1999, when U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) bombing stopped a crackdown on ethnic Albanians by then Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.

Under United Nations resolution 1244 UNMIK is responsible for administration of Kosovo until the status of the province is defined. It is still unclear whether the declaration of independence has legally terminated UNMIK’s mandate. Its director Joakim Rucker insists that UNMIK remains the final authority and that resolution 1244 is valid.

Leading up to the incidents at the court house, UNMIK had come under serious pressure by Albanian politicians to recover control of the premises. At 5am, the forces went in, and the 53 officials found inside were arrested. They offered no resistance. But local Serbs who heard of the arrests as the news quickly spread, stopped some of the UNMIK minibuses and freed 21 Serbs before setting the vehicles ablaze.

Despite the early hours of the morning, a Serb crowd gathered soon outside the court house. UNMIK forces ruthlessly attacked people outside the court house “using tear gas, and plastic and real bullets,” Nemanie Tzekic, a young resident of the city told IPS. UNMIK spokesman Velton Elshan said the police acted after they were attacked.

The clashes spread around Mitrovica and continued until noon. Police forces said one Ukrainian special police officer, Ihor Kinal, 25, died in the attack, and 60 personnel were injured. The police said they were attacked with AK47 rifles and hand grenades.

According to the hospital authorities in Mitrovica, about 100 Serbs received treatment, and 15 were hospitalised through the night. One is said to be in serious condition.

A woman told IPS on condition of anonymity that her brother lost his eye when he was shot with a plastic bullet outside the court house.

“He was taken to Belgrade in very serious condition. He, like everyone else, went out as a reaction to the humiliation imposed on the court officials. He was shot from inside the building.”

Through the night, police forces were withdrawn from the city in fear of retaliation.

The violence has accentuated concerns that the region is quickly moving towards partition.

Milan Ivanovic, head of the radical Serbian National Council of Kosovo, told IPS that the excessive use of force was not spontaneous.

“There is a scenario orchestrated by NATO and UNMIK to transform northern Kosovo, starting from Mitrovica, into a militarised zone and thus impose the reality of a new independent Albanian state,” he said.

He denied that Serbs are coordinating their actions in line with Belgrade.