Dumb and dumber

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić yesterday announced the arrest of two Kosovo Albanians in retaliation for the arrest of four Serbs by Kosovo authorities:

The reciprocal measures are not in Serbia’s interests and the Serbian police does not wish to do this….[but] this type of situation (arrests of Serbs) can obviously no longer happen without reciprocal measures.

I hardly need mention that “reciprocal” or retaliatory arrests have no place in a rule of law lexicon. Nor need I mention that doing things not in your country’s interest is dumb.  With this singular act of hubris, Dačić has likely done more to tarnish Serbia’s European credentials than anyone else in recent months.

The problem goes deeper.  The arrests were made under a warrant issued by a Serbian court, one that is no longer resident in Kosovo.  This illustrates how little Belgrade respects UN Security Council resolution 1244, to which it appeals regularly and mistakenly as the basis for claims to Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo.  That resolution, if it did nothing else, put Kosovo–including its judicial system–under temporary UN administration, pending a decision on final status.  Serbia does not accept the proposition that the decision has been made, which is its right.  But under 1244 it has no right to be administering law in Kosovo.

The law under which the arrest was made includes, according to Balkan Insight, the following:

Whoever attempts to unconstitutionally bring Serbia or SaM[Serbia and Montenegro] into a position of subjugation or dependence in respect of another state, shall be punished by imprisonment of three to fifteen years.

So we are not talking small beans here.  And the impact of the arrests will be much broader than on the two people arrested.  It will curtail travel by Kosovo Albanians in Serbia, which the recent EU-brokered agreement between Belgrade and Pristina on travel documents and border regime was supposed to encourage.

Dačić is no fool.  He knows full well that his move will bring him nationalist votes and embarrass President Tadić, who has sought to burnish Serbia’s European credentials as he tries to convince Brussels to give Serbia a date on which to start accession talks.  Tadić is going to have a hard time explaining to Brussels why it should bend over backwards for Serbia when Belgrade is busy undoing an agreement the EU brokered.

What about the arrest of the four Serbs by the Pristina authorities?  According to the press, they were carrying election materials for the May 6 Serbian elections, which Belgrade wants to conduct in Serb communities in Kosovo and Pristina wants to prevent.

I am sympathetic with those Kosovars who want to establish full sovereignty on the entire territory of Kosovo, but I still need to ask why it was necessary to arrest the four Serbs.   Surely there are more nefarious activities going on than carrying election materials.  I suspect the answer is that it will be a politically popular move for Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, who faces strong pressure from more nationalist Albanians to stop Serbia’s many activities inside Kosovo. But he also expects to visit Washington next week, where a provocative move like the arrests is unlikely to be welcome.

I’d call this dumb and dumber.  I’ll let you decide which is which.