Publicado: 21 Mar 2008 15:36
Análisis sobre la posible participación serbia en los incidentes de Mitrovica
Serbia’s Hand Suspected in Kosovo Riots
19 March 2008 While official Belgrade insists Monday’s violence in Mitrovica was spontaneous, many in Kosovo believe elements in Serbia were behind the trouble.
By Krenar Gashi in Pristina and Nikola Lazic in Bujanovac
International officials - and some locals - in the Serb-controlled northern part of Mitrovica, in Kosovo, have blamed Belgrade for the violent turn of events in the town on Monday, when UN and NATO forces came under attack from an angry mob.
They say the riots were stoked as part of a plan by elements in Belgrade to keep the Serb-inhabited north of Kosovo under Serbian government control.
Officials in Belgrade have dismissed this, saying the riots were entirely spontaneous.
One international policeman died and over 60 were injured during the worst violence in Kosovo since 2004.
Over 30 NATO peacekeepers were also injured as they took over from UN police in trying to restore order in the town.
The events started when local Serbs seized a UN courthouse last Friday. When UN police tried to reclaim the building on Monday, protesters opened fire and threw grenades.
International officials in Kosovo claim the events were not as spontaneous as they looked and were planned and organised by the authorities in Serbia.
“We had information on Sunday afternoon that those who have penetrated the courthouse had a clear intention to perpetrate another UNMIK facility in northern Mitrovica,” Larry Rossin, deputy chief of the UN mission, UNMIK, said on Tuesday.
Rossin said the UN only started the police action following intensive negotiations with the occupiers of the courthouse.
He also said UNMIK had been in constant contact with Serb politicians in Mitrovica, “including some who have been instrumental in this orchestrated occupation of the courthouse”.
Since Kosovo declared independence local Serbs have opposed this decision by organising daily protests, leaving Kosovo institutions such as the police service and trying to take over the railways and courts in the Serb-dominated areas. The last takeover of the court and the railway some weeks before has been seen as part of Belgrade’s plan to separate the north.
One senior international official, based in Kosovo, told Balkan Insight the riots were part of the pre-election strategy of the Democratic Party of Serbia, DSS, led by Serbia’s outgoing Prime Minister, Vojislav Kostunica.
“What we saw in Mitrovica was a result of Belgrade’s political agenda, while Kosovo Serbs were once again the victims”, this official said, speaking anonymously.
Another official within the UN mission in Kosovo agreed. This official said UNMIK had been aware riots were being planned. According to him, they were supposed to be on a larger scale than actually occurred.
“We were aware for quite a long time that organised militants were planning to infiltrate peaceful demonstrations and turn them violent”, this official explained.
Serbs in Mitrovica have been holding protests daily since the former Serbian province of Kosovo declared independence on February 17. Organised by students, they have been peaceful.
Monday’s outburst, on the other hand, recalled the March 2004 riots in Kosovo, when Albanian mobs torched Serbian churches and houses.
Trouble started when about 100 local Serbs broke through police lines and entered the District Court in Mitrovica, which was operating under UN control.
Some only wanted back their jobs, which they lost in 1999, when the UN took over control of Kosovo from Serbia.
But some protesters told Balkan Insight their real demand was for the courthouse to be returned to Serbian jurisdiction and they also said they were acting under Belgrade’s instructions.
A Serbian source, close to one political party in Mitrovica confirmed this claim to Balkan Insight over the phone. “For every move there is direct support and planning from Belgrade,” he asserted.
The same source added that before Kosovo declared independence, a number of Serbian secret police had been deployed in Northern Mitrovica.
On Tuesday, Rossin said that some of the people involved in the disturbances had been “identified as officers of the Serbian Ministry of Interior”.
Stojanka Petkovic, a member of the Serbian parliament from the centrist G17-Plus party, also accused the outgoing government in Serbia of stoking the trouble.
Petkovic told Balkan Insight that Slobodan Samardzic, Serbia’s Minister for Kosovo and a member of Kostunica’s political party, was to blame.
“Samardzic, or somebody else who is directly behind this, will have to explain what happened and accept responsibility,” Petkovic said. “What happened is not of good for the Kosovo Serbs,” she added.
The Kosovo government echoes this line. The Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, on Monday said he regretted that Kosovo Serbs were being “once again manipulated by Belgrade”.
Naim Maloku, a member of the Kosovo parliament, told Balkan Insight he also believed elements in Serbia proper stood behind the riots.
“Different political wings in Serbia are trying to radicalise the situation to profit from it, especially now they are facing elections on May 11,” Maloku said.
The politician was referring to claims that moderate forces in Serbia backing President Boris Tadic are likely to fare worse in the polls if Serbs vote against a background of turmoil in Kosovo.
Kosovo Serbs politicians have said little about the events in Mitrovica. However, Oliver Ivanovic, a moderate Serb politician from Mitrovica, told Belgrade’s B92 channel that Serbs in Kosovo needed to start negotiating over their future, and that Samardzic needed “to take responsibility for the protests and everything that Serbs are trying to achieve”.
“As Minister for Kosovo and Metohija, he must do that and if he refuses or is not accepted as a negotiator, he must appoint someone in the field who has his support”, Ivanovic said.
In the meantime, DSS officials in Serbia have denied they had any links with the riots, blaming the UN and NATO.
“Serbs are not for violence,” Slobodan Samardzic said speaking in Mitrovica.
An official from the Serbian secret police also told Balkan Insight that local people in Mitrovica needed no help in obtaining – or using - weapons.
“People in northern Kosovo have always had weapons,” he said. “We know about that and we have repeatedly warned UN police in past months and weeks, urging them not to provoke violence,” he added.
“Claiming that the Serbian government was behind this is completely ridiculous,” he went on. “It was the UN police that raided the court, not Serbian troops.”
But Stojanka Petkovic disagrees. “It is clear somebody organised this,” she asserted.
Krenar Gashi is BIRN Kosovo Editor. Nikola Lazic is Balkan Insight regular contributor from Southern Serbia. Aleksandar Vasovic, BIRN`s Serbia Editor also contributed to this report. Balkan Insight is BIRN’s online publication.