Stop! in the name of what?
Serbs are continuing to block roads in northern Kosovo, while several Serbs have been killed in the Albanian-majority area south of the Ibar in the last few weeks. Continuing in these directions will push Kosovo in the direction of partition, which is what nationalist Serbs and Albanians intend. What can stop this drift?
Not, certainly, love, or even mutual understanding. One of the Serb mayors in northern Kosovo is quoted as saying
This can be easily solved if KFOR and EULEX say that they will not transport Kosovo police and customs officers and if they take back those people from the crossings, then a space for free movement of everybody and for normal talks will be opened.
This is what the Serbs of northern Kosovo claim is a “status-neutral” solution: a complete surrender by the international community and Pristina to Serb demands, in advance of negotiations.
Belgrade, concerned about the impact of the Serb resistance in northern Kosovo on its own hopes for approval of EU candidacy and a date for accession talks to begin, is trying to leave everything up to the Serbs in northern Kosovo. No one should be fooled. The northern Kosovo Serbs are heavily subsidized by Belgrade, which could bring them into line if it really wanted.
It is difficult to say the same about the Albanians south of the Ibar, especially as the murders seem to be unconnected. But Pristina needs to try harder. There has to be strict accountability for crimes against Serbs if Kosovo is to gain high ground in its international tug of war with Belgrade. The murders in recent weeks have to be made the object of serious investigations leading to arrests and prosecutions. And those who perpetrate these crimes, or who intimidate witnesses, should be viewed as what they are: enemies of a Kosovo state seeking to gain international recognition as a willing and capable defender of the rights of all its citizens.
It is always difficult to get individuals who stand to lose something in line in order to serve a broader, societal interest. But that is precisely what is needed both among the Serbs and the Albanians. They need to stop the violence against Serbs south of the Ibar and the barricades north of the Ibar in the name of the broader interests at stake for their respective groups. Both communities are cohesive enough to do this.
Albanians need to stop in the name of Kosovar interests. Serbs need to stop in the name of Serbian interests.
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6 thoughts on “Stop! in the name of what?”
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Mr Daniel,
Again you are wrong, Serbs want the situation that existed before the Albanian “anti-terrorist” unit and customs officers took the cross, before that productive negotiations were conducted, but the unilateral move of Pristina is unacceptable to the Serbs. They do not seek complete surrender but would not accept violent as final solution.
Sadly EULEX and NATO are actually working force for Kosovo PM Hashim Thaqi accused of the most serious war crimes.
If you like results first change situation in Kosovo. For example, Serbs not to be targets for shooting, to have normal administration, not criminals… After that you have right to demand from Serbs something, just something. Meanwhile do not ask for any step toward Albanian (read American) Kosovo, specially not everything from Serbs but nothing from Albanians.
Cedomir Jovanovic in an article in today’s Blic http://www.blic.rs/Vesti/Politika/284924/Jovanovic-Predugo-tolerisani-samozvani-lideri-na-severu-KiM is quoted as calling on the Serbian government to stop tolerating the antics of the “self-proclaimed” (samozvani) leaders in the north of Kosovo. They’ve been promised diplomatic and economic support, he says, since the government cannot come out and proclaim its public support of their positions because of their EU aspirations. The north Kosovar leaders, he claims, are being used by those in Belgrade who hope to scuttle the EU project. The most recent meeting between the Kfor representative and the Serb leaders ended with no result – the leaders say they need to hear directly from Tadic what they should do, calling his bluff, if that’s what it is.
About the shooting: There was a post yesterday at the B92 response page for the article on the murder and wounding of the Serbs in Kosovo yesterday. The writer said he knew the suspect, someone who had been terrorizing the entire village for years, had even shot his own uncle. The suspect turned himself in to the police the morning after the shooting.
Well, the large and impressing record of crimes against the Serbs in Kosovo dates not only “the last few weeks”, but the last years. And for years no one – no one, never – of these crimes were seriously prosecuted. So, the Pristina institutions you are so eager to impose in the north can be considered, if not the direct authors of that crimes, their accomplishes.
That said, the efforts to present the conquer of the north Kosovo by the Pristina institutions as “a broader, societal interest” seems to me not grounded.
“This is what the Serbs of northern Kosovo claim is a “status-neutral” solution: a complete surrender by the international community and Pristina to Serb demands, in advance of negotiations.”
You cannot negotiate and wage war at the same time. Yet that is exactly what KFOR and the Albanians are doing when they want to negotiate and at the same time to introduce Albanian custom and police officers in the North. Those officers are a NEW element that has not been there before.
We have peacekeepers in Kosovo for a reason: there is no peace and there are two parties with opposite interests. Now KFOR has reasoned itself into a reality distortion field where there is no need for negotiations if they just force the Serbs step-by-step to surrender. This is not “status-neutral” and has nothing to do with peacekeeping. The only “principle” they have left is “no border changes” – as if that principle hasn’t disproved itself in Croatia. This principle is also a violation of international law that explicitly allows border changes: see the Helsinki Accords.
However desperately trying to create quite the opposite impression – especially now that the pre-election campaign, though still not officially announced, is well underway – neither Boris Tadic as the president nor Serbian government as a single governing body have enough leverage over Serb leaders in the northern Kosovo, and by extension, over those at the barricades, to entirely control their behavior. Moreover, Serbian authorities are provenly incapable of exercising full legal power even in Serbia itself, let alone Kosovo, which is so mostly due to the fragility of strikingly corrupt state institutions. Hence, the assumption that it is the official Belgrade that further activities of the northern Kosovo Serbs decisively depend upon is, to say the least, too risky to count on it.