A true state of emergency has been in force these last few days in Kosovo, following the intervention of Kosovo special police units ROSA on the border crossings in northern Kosovo. There is a consensus in the Serbian media regarding this action carried out by the Pristina government: Albanians are, as always, guilty when they carry out unilateral activities in the north, while Serbs in Mitrovica are (of course) right, because they are protecting “our” north. However, the reality in the field is totally different. People who are “protecting” the northern part of Kosovo today, are in reality “protecting” the criminals in their midst, people who smuggle merchandise, people, drugs, and other lucrative goods. They are the ones preventing the establishment of customs control in northern Kosovo, like the one existing on all other border crossings between Serbia and Kosovo. The lack of good customs and police control on the border crossings in the north enables a large number of people to become rich at the expense of Serbian and Kosovo tax payers.
There is an unspoken agreement in northern Kosovo – criminals (“patriots”) are smuggling, citizens are receiving double salaries from Belgrade, while Borko Stefanovic justifies this state of affairs in Brussels. On the other hand, the authorities in Pristina are focused on establishing sovereignty over the entire territory of Kosovo, in accordance with Ahtisaari’s plan, with the (modest) support of the US, but without EU support. Serbia is interested in securing some kind of special status for the north, as part of the negotiations between Belgrade and Pristina. The ideal outcome for Serbia would be the division of Kosovo, but this does not have the necessary support of the international community (apart from Russia).
People wearing hoodies, who burned down and then bulldozered the border crossing Jarinje, attacking journalists and firing on members of KPS and KFOR, are an integral part of the army of Vojislav Kostunica (and people similar to him), that is, the military wing of Serbs from northern Kosovo. They, paradoxically, do not answer to the official administration in Belgrade (President Tadic), but to the part of Serbia that wants to live in a perpetual state of war. Tadic’s responsibility lies in his inability to finally disarm the extremists in the north, and turn a historical page in regard to Kosovo. One thing is totally clear – without the support of a certain part of parallel structures in Belgrade, the attacks on border crossings would not be possible. Furthermore, with such behavior, Serbia is seriously risking its chances to become a candidate for EU membership, that is, to receive a date for the beginning of negotiations.
And finally, while media in Serbia are in agreement that such an intervention of Pristina “is a barbaric act of a barbaric people”, something that everyone must condemn, I am asking a question: do you know the name of the thirty-two year old Kosovo police officer who was shot in the head by a sniper, near the Brnjak border crossing, and who died on the operating table of the ER center in Pristina? His name was Enver Zumberi, from Pristina, father of three.
Peščanik.net, 31.07.2011.
