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Two days after the Kosovobloodshed this weekend, the skies over northern Mitrovica are grey. The mountains are shrouded in heavy clouds, and drizzly rainfall has turned the roads slippery.
The weather matches the somber mood of a tall 24-year-old Kosovo Serb, who is rushing to work. He won’t tell us his name, but confides that the weekend violence left him with “stomach pains, for two days now,” adding “they get worse when I think about the bloodshed.” He won’t reveal his occupation, or anything else that could let anyone discover his identity. He sounds depressed and fearful.
The northern part of Mitrovica city is populated almost exclusively by Serbs. Just like much of northern Kosovo. Most residential homes in this area are grey, though red-blue-and-white Serbian flags fly everywhere. A graffiti adorns one of the houses, stating that Kosovo belongs to Serbia, and Crimea to Russia.
Local merchants at sell fruit, vegetables and cheap Chinese goods, such as clothing and electronics, at their stalls. Scores of broken cars line the streets. Nobody has bothered removing them for years.
Ambushed
On the night from Saturday to Sunday, Kosovo experienced the worst outbreak of violence since its 2008 independence declaration. The incident occurred only a few kilometers from here.
Kosovar police officers were ambushed when they inspected two trucks without number plates blocking a road. One officer was killed.
When reinforcements arrived, a group of about 30 heavily armed attackers occupied nearby Banjska monastery, holing themselves up there. In the ensuring firefight with Kosovar security forces, three attackers were killed, while the others managed to escape.
Police officers later seized grenade launchers, bazookas, assault rifles and hand grenades, an armored vehicle and jeep.
Electroral boycott and roadblocks
Since Kosovo declared itself independent from Serbia in February 2008, there have been many violent clashes between Orthodox Christian Serbs and Muslim Albanians. The Kosovo Force (KFOR), a NATO-led peacekeeping unit, which has been stationed in the country since the end of the Kosovo war in 1999, often intervened to restore order, for example by protecting Serbian Orthodox monasteries.
Kosovo had not experienced a paramilitary-terrorist attack by a heavily armed group in years — until last weekend.
After about a decade of a growing calm, tensions seem to be increasing once more for the past year.
Everything started witha dispute over Serbian license plates in Kosovo in the summer of 2022. It escalated to the point where Kosovo Serb ministers left the Kosovo government, political representatives of the Serb minority withdrew from all Kosovo state institutions, and all mayors of Serb-majority municipalities resigned.
When the Kosovar government held a local election, Srpska Lista, Kosovo’s only Serb minority party, called an election boycott, organizing roadblocks and threatening voters and candidates.
Rumors and fear
In the Zvecan municipality, north of Mitrovica, which encompasses the village and monastery of Banjska, a huge Christian cross rises up in the middle of the main road, its horizontal crossbeam high enough even trucks can pass underneath. From here, an abandoned metallurgical plant with a huge chimney are visible.
Many people here seem shaken by the weekend bloodshed, wondering if the incident could lead to worse clashes or even a new war. “We, the people here, are very worried,” says Sami Kurti, a local doctor who serves several communities in the area. “There were rumors and warnings that armed groups would come from Serbia and plan something large-scale; unfortunately, it was not just rumors, but is a reality.”
After the deadly weekend clashes, the route leading from Mitrovica toward the Banjska monastery is now patrolled by policemen and heavily armed soldiers, military jeeps and armored cars drive back and forth. Checkpoints have been set up along the way.
Scared to speak out
Zvecan mayor Illir Peci says “it’s true that people are very afraid” but adds “the police brought everything under control after the incident.” Peci is one of several Albanian mayors in northern Kosovo who were elected with only three to four percent of the vote after their Serb colleagues resigned, boycotting the election. He is anxious not to say anything potentially confrontational that could exacerbate the situation.
Many people in the area do not want to speak to journalists at all. This is probably also due to the influence of the Srpska Lista party, which dominates northern Kosovo, and is clearly controlled by Belgrade. Entrepreneur Milan Radojicic, who leads the party, has a strong grip on northern Kosovo. He is said to be involved in numerous criminal activities, including drug trafficking. Radojicic maintains a close relationship with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Climate of fear
Activists and politicians who have made efforts to work with Kosovar authorities are intimidated, or even murdered. In January 2018, for example, politician Oliver Ivanovic was killed. He had called for Kosovo Serbs to integrate into the Kosovar state.
Ivanovic’s murder has not been solved, though Radojicic is thought to have played a role in masterminding his death.
Radojicic might also be behind this weekend’s deadly skirmishes. At least that’s what a drone video released this week by Kosovo’s interior ministry seems to suggest. It shows Radojicic in the courtyard of a property north of Mitrovica on Sunday, surrounded by heavily armed men, carrying an automatic rifle and talking on the phone. The video was taken shortly before the men fled to Serbia.
In this light, it is no wonder many people in northern Kosovo do not want to publicly comment on the situation. This is also explains the caution of the above mentioned 24-year-old Kosovo Serb from northern Mitrovica. While reluctant to reveal any personal details, he did say that on an interpersonal level, things had actually worked well in Kosovo in recent years. “Small groups of people met, talked to each other, we even drank to fraternity,” he says. “But now I don’t know what will happen next.”
This article was translated from German.
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