Kosovo has a way of elbowing its way back into the spotlight whenever most people’s attention has drifted elsewhere.
Do your eyes glaze over at the mention of negotiations over car license plates, customs stamps, passports, etc.? Then how about a special police operation, including the use of NATO helicopters, the torching of a customs post, and the death of a police officer?
The violent events in northern Kosovo unfolded quickly last week, but since March, Belgrade and Pristina have been haggling over what are supposed to be technical issues, like those above. Maybe when it comes to Kosovo, though, there is no such thing as a purely technical issue. After all, the validity of car registrations, customs stamps, and passports depends on the validity of the state issuing them and, well, you know where that leads.
For those who have not been following along, I’ll take a crack at untangling this, to the extent that I understand it. Serbia refuses to recognize the imprimaturs of a state that it says does not exist, imposing an effective trade blockade on Kosovo. In turn, Pristina decided to block trucks from Serbia from passing through customs points in the northern Mitrovica region. Two customs posts refused the order and Pristina sent special police forces north to enforce it. They were met by Serbs who had built barricades along the routes. Negotiations between the sides, led by the NATO leaders in Kosovo, went on while NATO flew Kosovo police in helicopters over the barricades to the customs posts.
If you’re not there, it’s not easy to get a good assessment of the situation. Speaking to a Kosovo news outlet, Prime Minster Hashim Thaci said, “Dramatic events that followed, organized men, motivated and incited by senior Serbian officials, initially physically attacked Gate 1 and set it on fire or were tolerated to do so, and afterwards attacked Gate 31, too.” (The rough translation is courtesy of the BBC’s media monitoring service).
But a secondhand account from a Serbian correspondent landed in my inbox this weekend. Relaying information from friends on the scene, she said that Kosovan forces are blocking food and medical supplies, that “according to witness’ working in hospital in Mitrovica, neonatology department is in crisis running out of the medicine and basic treatment material. … Yesterday, it took 2 hours to the Kosovo Albanians and KFOR [the NATO mission in Kosovo] to let an extremely ill patient with ambulance to cross the administrative line to be treated in central Serbia but, apparently one of the few ambulance cars, if not only, is not let back to Kosovska Mitrovica, so hospital runs out of ambulances. Nobody is let out or in on the administrative lines.”
Thaci has said the operation is about taking control of the entire country, not only the part south of the Serb-dominated Mitrovica region. He has also said it was aimed at rooting out rampant smuggling and corruption that had been encouraged by Serbia and winked at by international authorities in place for years in Kosovo.
For what it’s worth, one commentator in Pristina reckons it’s also a way of shoring up domestic support for a prime minister who has been criticized for being “servile” to the international community and tolerating too much.
“With his decision to demonstrate force in the north and to act without prior permission from the international presence, Thaci has crossed a dangerous line and has touched a soft spot of the Kosova citizens. The approval of this action by all local factors and citizens, their solidarity with the special forces, tributes for the killed policeman, and the feeling of having a state capable of such action are the best proof of the support for Thaci. After this action, his political ratings have risen from the critical point and will continue to rise,” Armand Shkullaku wrote in the Express newspaper last week.
6 Comments at "Just When You Thought It Was Safe to Stop Thinking About Kosovo"
I don’t see why Kosovo didn’t have control of its areas from the beginning .This is why this is happening now. Blame Europe And Nato Eulex.
Also I see mention of Medicine and food not being allowed,I think its more the “Grey Market” not flowing and hurting their cash pockets .
I did not uderstand.. “crossing of a dangerous line” is very good for “political ratings” in Kosovo? Its frightening.
Dear,
with all due respect; referring to ” … I’ll take a crack at untangling this, to the extent that I understand it. …”
According to what I read in your article, you seem to understand very little.
But you are right in some points.
To explain a very simple situation (that unfortunately has no simple solution).
Kosovo is an independent state, whose independent status has partially been recognized by the world (over 70 countries), with Serbia refusing to recognize it moreover claiming this territory as its own.
Since declaration of independence in Feb 2008, goods imported from Serbia were not subject to paying customs as is the case for all other countries and all other border points but 1 and 31.
Ministry of Trade of Kosovo has brought a decision that this illogical (and unacceptable) situation must come to an end and have brought a decision to enforce custom fees for all goods imported from Serbia.
Following this decision, Kosovo police forces were sent to implement this decision (which is in full accordance with laws in Kosovo and the decision of our Ministry of Trade).
Kosovo police forces were attacked by masked paramilitary, two of them wounded of which one died later in the hospital. border points were set on fire.
The only thing hard to understand and maybe complicated for an interested reader here is, why has the Ministry of Trade and the Kosovo Government allowed custom-free import for so long, and tolerated the Serbian-Albanian(Kosovar) mafia to run the territory in delight of the Serbian Government.
I close this the way I opened it, with all due respect to the author.
best
Good, Mr. Thaci may have more candidates now for organ harvesting to sell.
Kosovo was crying bloody murder as Serbia was “keeping them poor” despite the decades of unheard of immigration from Albania into Kosovo (Geez, why would they even go to the place that discriminated them so harshly?).
Yet, after so many years of “freedom” that NATO had brought them and all the huge monies poured into Kosovo by the richest countries in the world, still no improvement? You know, that Serbia “owed” Kosovo in the first place?
Anybody able to see something wrong with that picture?
Plus,entire Serbia bombed to smithereens to “protect poor Albanians” and who is now doing multiple acts of terrorism against USA since “the freedom” came? Go look it up your selves. But of course, those are some “other” Albanians. Not everybody has as clean past as our great ally Mr. Thaci.
Well, there’s a saying that goes – you are with who you are.
At least u sad how it started, cnn sad that Serbs set fire to building along Kosovo border and thats all in their report, nothing about ROSU actions.
Reply to “Serb”
I see you are completely uninformed about the situation that was going on there…
As you mentioned “cnn sad that Serbs set fire to building along Kosovo border”, I would call them Terrorists but, Kosovo Institutions don’t wanna call them like that, coze they act absolutely under the command of Serb institutions and that’s Clear and Easy to Understand, So Kosovo calls them Mercenary, Paid from Belgrade which once are paid to make as much noise and insecurity as possible in that part of Kosovo…
And for the “nothing about ROSU actions.” you say…
How can you be so unmoral…:(
A -ROSU- Member was killed from an Extremist with a Sniper… amd you wanna know the sad truth, these ROSU Unit members didn’t even touch a civilian or a Serb more exactly…
SO WHAT’S THERE TO MENTION IN ANY REPORT…?
Ahh ok, they should mention that ROSU gave them Roses, Serbs responded with Firing at them… (I agree with you if this was on your mind)
That part of Kosovo till July the 25′Th was a Smuggling oasis,
What do you Expect, let this Oasis become a Black Hole for the whole Region…
Think about that!
Comment Now!