KFOR personnel are constantly present at the main bridge between North and South Mitrovica, and since the actions of the Kosovo Police, which involve closing Serbian institutions in the north, have become routine, several non-governmental organizations from northern Kosovo have appealed to KFOR to establish control points in front of institutions that provide services to Serbs, in order to guarantee their safety. How realistic is it that this will happen?
“The continuation of violent actions by Kosovo institutions will lead to unforeseeable consequences for the lives of Serbs in municipalities with a Serbian majority, further damaging the already fragile status of a multiethnic Kosovo. We believe that only KFOR’s actions can ensure peace and security in Serbian communities in northern Kosovo and create space for political dialogue under the auspices of the European Union to resolve all open issues in the process of normalizing relations,” stated a joint announcement from several non-governmental organizations and groups of civic activists from northern Kosovo.
They also assessed that the Kosovo Police are now functioning to fulfill the political goals of the Self-Determination Movement.
From KFOR’s perspective, the current security situation in Kosovo is peaceful but fragile, “especially in the north.” As they regularly emphasize, KFOR is closely monitoring developments and maintaining a visible and appropriate presence through regular patrols and engagement with local communities. According to their statements to our portal, KFOR currently has nearly 4,500 soldiers.
Miodrag Marinkovic, Executive Director of the NGO Center for Affirmative Social Action (CASA), told Kosovo Online that everything happening in northern Kosovo currently requires KFOR to move out of its passive role to provide some form of protection to the Serbian community. In this regard, he emphasized that KFOR is the only armed force in which the Serbian community has trust.
The organization CASA is one of the NGOs that appealed to KFOR, and Marinkovic says that these organizations believe KFOR should have a greater presence on the streets in northern Kosovo.
“KFOR should be stationed near some key institutions—not schools, because we don’t want soldiers near schools—but at key locations in the north, like hospitals, and on the main street in Kosovska Mitrovica, along with an increased number of patrols in Serbian areas. We have dramatic footage of the arrest of four young people from a few nights ago, where the excessive use of force was evident. If KFOR had been nearby, they could have prevented such actions or been present during them,” Marinkovic says.
He reminds that KFOR acts as the third instance in responding to security threats, with the first being the Kosovo Police and the second being EULEX, but he emphasizes that the first instance, the Kosovo Police, is actually the source of security threats for the Serbian community in northern Kosovo.
“So, the whole chain of action is rendered ineffective when those who are directly responsible for the security of the Serbian community in Kosovo are, in fact, the ones threatening it. We’ve had numerous examples of excessive use of force, cases of shooting at passersby, and daily reports of the police in the north behaving arrogantly and abusively. In such a situation, it is essential for the Serbian community to receive some form of protection. KFOR is currently the only force that the Serbian community trusts for this, and that was the basis of our request,” explains our interlocutor.
He states that since 1999, KFOR has been the only armed formation in which the Serbian community has had some level of trust.
“The situation has drastically changed in the last year or two, especially in the north, because we are witnessing the brutal behavior of Kurti’s police, a police force directly controlled by the government of Kosovo, while on the other hand, Belgrade is completely powerless to prevent this.
In such a situation, the Serbian community increasingly turns to KFOR as an armed force that has already proven it can provide some form of security guarantee for the Serbian community in Kosovo, especially in the north, because thanks to KFOR, the Serbian community survived there in 1999,” says Marinkovic.
However, he is aware that the deployment of KFOR checkpoints in the north requires going through a whole decision-making system in which civil society has no role, but he points out that it is their duty to seek and propose solutions that are functional and that enable the survival of the Serbian community on the ground.
“That was the primary motivation behind our statement and the core reason for our efforts during countless meetings with the international community, where we continue to propose the idea that KFOR must take on greater responsibilities in northern Kosovo,” he said.
He added that such an expectation cannot be placed on EULEX, even though its mandate involves monitoring the Kosovo Police.
“Their role is currently completely undefined. They are very passive, afraid of Pristina, afraid of Kurti, and afraid of damaging the relationships that exist between them. In this sense, they are completely ineffective for normal life in northern Kosovo. I even think there is no longer a need for EULEX to exist in its current form in Kosovo,” Marinkovic explained.
Dragiša Mijacic, Coordinator of the National Convention on the EU’s Working Group for Chapter 35, also believes that KFOR’s presence at certain checkpoints in the north would be a good measure to prevent further escalation of the situation.
“The deployment of KFOR in front of all institutions significant to the Serbian people, especially the University, would be one of the measures to prevent new escalations and dissatisfaction among the Serbian population,” Mijacic told Kosovo Online.
Regarding the possibility of KFOR responding to the appeal of non-governmental organizations from the north, Dragan Sutanovac, President of the Council for Strategic Policies and former Minister of Defense of Serbia, says that this mission will not act based on the requests of NGOs, nor the requests from Belgrade or Pristina, or the EU. However, he adds that he is certain KFOR does not currently support everything that Albin Kurti is doing.
“KFOR is an absolutely independent mission, and I am sure there are people responsible for security who make assessments upon which the KFOR commander and his superiors will decide how the mission will be deployed and whether they will take direct action or remain passive, as is the case now,” Sutanovac told Kosovo Online.
Sutanovac explains that KFOR operates under its mandate from the United Nations and that its commanders, whether in Naples or Brussels, will issue orders based on the assessments made.
“I know KFOR is quite nervous, and besides Kurti harassing the Serbs, he is also endangering the safety of KFOR personnel. How they will act depends on the level of force Kurti will use, whether against the Serbs or if there is an attempt to provoke a conflict between the Serbs and KFOR. I am convinced KFOR is fully aware of what is happening, and now more than ever, the Serbs need to show patience. I know this is an extremely difficult moment, but I believe this is perhaps the only way to maintain some level of security while also showing the international community what is truly happening in Kosovo, so we can expect their reaction,” said Sutanovac.
He adds that it is no secret that KFOR has been more present in northern Kosovo recently, and a few weeks ago, they deployed their forces directly on the bridge connecting North and South Mitrovica, aiming to show that they are in control of security in that area and that Pristina’s unilateral decisions will not dictate KFOR’s mandate, which is to maintain peace, especially where Serbs are endangered, as currently, no other group is at risk.
“If there were to be a larger-scale conflict involving heavy weapons, I have no doubt that KFOR would intervene, but I hope and sincerely believe it won’t come to that,” he stressed.
To recall, on August 30, the Kosovo Police stormed the buildings of provisional bodies in Leposavic, Kosovska Mitrovica, Zvecan, and Zubin Potok, including the hospital complex of the Clinical Hospital Center in Kosovska Mitrovica, the building housing the Pension and Disability Fund (PIO), the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, the Kosovo-Metohija Administrative District, the Center for Social Work, and Serbian institutions in Leposavic. Later, on September 12, the police seized the remaining dinars from the Treasury of the National Bank of Serbia in Leposavic.
The signatories of the appeal to KFOR are Aktiv, the Advocacy Center for Democratic Culture (ACDC), the Center for Affirmative Social Actions (CASA), the Institute for Territorial Economic Development (InTER), civic activist Jovana Radosavljevic, civic activist Milica Andric Rakic, researcher Milica Radovanovic, civic activist Marko Milenkovic, and journalist Sanja Sovrlic.
