INDEPENDENCE "COLLAPSES" IN NORTH KOSOVO - SERBIAN DAILY
BBC Monitoring International Reports - March 7, 2008, Friday

Text of report by M. Radonjic and I. Radulovic: "Independence collapses in north", published by Serbian wide-circulation tabloid Vecernje novosti, on 7 March

Ahtisaari's package, which was to have distanced Serbia from Kosmet [Kosovo-Metohija] forever, has been misplaced in the north, Serb part of the province.

At the Jarinje checkpoint, a contact point with central Serbia, travellers entering Kosmet are greeted by a Serb policeman wearing the uniform of the Kosovo Police Service (KPS [SHPK in Albanian]). Around him are foreigners, UNMIK [UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo] policemen, who look away. Travellers cross from one side to the other quicker than ever. The Kosovo customs service used to be here once, too, but no more. After 17 February, the administrative boundary line definitely has not become a border.

Lesak, Leposavic, Socanica, and, finally, north Kosovska Mitrovica, decorated with Serbian state flags. Security is in the care of several hundred Serb KPS policemen, who are answerable directly to the local Serb self-government, on whose payroll they are.

We ask US diplomat Gerard Galluci, the regional UNMIK administrator for Kosovska Mitrovica, whether the international community, as one hears, will "accept the reality" in the north.

"I think that it is accurate to say that we are fully aware of the reality," the top man of the UN mission in the town on the Ibar River replies for Vecernje Novosti.

Galluci describes the situation as "surprisingly quiet." He praises equally the people, the political leaders, and the police.

"The situation is very tense, but quiet," Galluci says. "We know that, while there are no Serbs in the south of the town, hundreds of Albanians live in the north part of the town. We also know that all have arms. From time to time, somebody fires shots or throws a hand grenade, not in order to hurt anybody, but to send some kind of message. Although there is huge potential for conflict, the situation is nevertheless quiet."

Truth be told, there are more Kfor [Kosovo Force] troops in the streets than before. They patrol all of Kosovska Mitrovica and occasionally put up a checkpoint on the Zvecan road.

EU officials have said several times that they expect their mission, EULEX, which is recognized neither by the local Serbs nor the state of Serbia, to become established on the entire territory of Kosmet. However, they are not there inthe north. Even the local hotel would not take them. Politicians, as well as the people, are prepared to boycott them at every step. Asked what kind of contacts UNMIK could have with the EU mission, which is planning to deploy also to Kosovska Mitrovica, Galluci says:

"None. If you are asking about a transfer of powers from UNMIK to the EU mission, there is none of that. At this moment, we are working under the mandate of UNSC Resolution 1244 and we will continue to do so."

One of the facilities not guarded by Serbian policemen is the courthouse at the entrance into north Kosovska Mitrovica, outside which Serb judiciary workers have been protesting for 11 days, demanding to be reinstated in their jobs, from which they were expelled back in the summer of 1999. Behind the grill are Romanian and Ukrainian policemen, while Portuguese troops are in an APC on a hillock nearby, looking on. If UNMIK's court is not working, who is administering justice in this part of the town?

"That is a good question," Galluci goes on. "The local population looks on UNMIK's court as the court of an unlawful state and there is a belief that north Kosovska Mitrovica will have its own separate court when it becomes a separate municipality. This question needs to be resolved, the sooner the better, and I, for one, have no answer as to how this is to be done."
 

Source: Vecernje novosti, Belgrade, in Serbian 7 Mar 08

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