Conflicts: Kosovo police dismantle combat squad in the Serbian north

After heavy fighting that left at least four dead, the Kosovo police have largely dismantled a Serbian combat command active in the Serb-populated north. This was announced by Kosovo’s Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla in Pristina. The squad, apparently supported by neighboring Serbia, attacked Kosovar police officers in the village of Banjska near Mitrovica early on Sunday morning and temporarily took control of a Serbian Orthodox monastery.

In the first armed clash, the attackers killed a police officer and injured another. The fighting between the irregular militiamen and the police, who had arrived with reinforcements, continued throughout Sunday. According to Kosovo and Serbian information, three attackers were killed. Another Kosovar police officer suffered minor injuries. The police arrested two armed attackers and four suspected helpers. The public prosecutor’s office in Pristina opened proceedings against her on suspicion of terrorist crimes.

Worst incident in years

Sunday’s fighting was the worst incident in the tense relationship between Kosovo and Serbia in years. Kosovo, which is now almost exclusively inhabited by Albanians, seceded from Serbia with NATO help in 1999 after Serbian war crimes against the Kosovo Albanian civilian population and declared independence in 2008. More than 100 countries, including Germany, recognize Kosovo’s independence, while Serbia, Russia, China and five EU member states do not. Belgrade demands the return of its former province.

As Interior Minister Svecla explained, the situation in Banjska was still tense on Sunday evening. The police are in the process of locating and arresting additional members of the original 30-member commando squad. The police found weapons caches of enormous dimensions in the area around the Banjska monastery. Some of the people arrested belong to the Kosovo Serb militant organization “Civil Defense”. According to the findings of Kosovar prosecutors, this is controlled, financed and generously equipped with weapons by the Serbian government.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti described the events in Banjska as an “act of terrorism”. “Organized crime is attacking our state with the political, financial and logistical support of official Belgrade,” he said at a news conference in Pristina on Sunday.

Kosovo and Serbia have been negotiating for months without success

The Kosovo government released images showing men with infantry combat weapons and bulletproof vests, as well as a jeep and an armored transport vehicle. The course of the incident suggests that it was professionally prepared and controlled. Apparently a Kosovo police patrol was first lured into an ambush. The officers discovered two unmarked trucks on a bridge blocking access to Banjska. When more police arrived, the attackers opened fire on them.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic claimed at a news conference broadcast on state television in Belgrade on Sunday evening that Kurti alone was to blame for the bloody confrontation. He would provoke the Serbs in Kosovo, and “unfortunately some Serbs fell for these provocations.” The killing of the Kosovo police officer was “reprehensible,” he added. “Nobody needs something like that, least of all the Serbian people.”

The EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell spoke to Kurti and Vucic on the phone on Sunday. In the talks, he strongly condemned the aggression against the Kosovo police, the EU foreign service in Brussels said. He reiterated his demand to Vucic that the attackers surrender.

Under the mediation of Borrell and the EU special representative Miroslav Lajcak, Kosovo and Serbia have been negotiating for several months about normalizing their relationship. However, the talks have so far been unsuccessful. The EU recently blamed the Kosovar side for this because they do not want to agree to the formation of an association of Serbian communities demanded by the EU and Serbia. However, Pristina sees this as an attempt to lay the foundation for a later secession of the Serbian north.