UNMIK says Serbian police in Kosovo illegally

03/04/2008

Pristina and UNMIK officials have accused Serbia of having police forces in Kosovo illegally, but Serbia's president and prime minister adamantly dismiss the accusations.

By Igor Jovanovic for Southeast European Times in Belgrade – 03/04/08

Serbian Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic has denied calling for a partition. [Getty Images]

UNMIK spokesman Alexander Ivanko said in a press briefing last week that Serbian policemen were inside the courthouse in Mitrovica when Serb judicial workers entered by force, demanding that they get their jobs back.

After UNMIK police arrested the demonstrators and prepared to transfer them to the Pristina jail, clashes erupted between Kosovo Serbs and members of the international missions. One Ukrainian policeman was killed and about 200 people were injured in the riot.

"We do have rock solid proof, as I said last week, that there were serving officers of the MUP [Serbian Interior Ministry] present in the court building," Ivanko said.

Separately, Kosovo Interior Minister Zenun Pajaziti said the Kosovo Police Service (KPS) had informed him that "Serbia's parallel security structures" exist in Kosovo, the Pristina daily Koha Ditore reported on Monday.

For five consecutive days beginning on March 26th, the newspaper cited documents from undisclosed UNMIK sources suggesting that at least ten Serbian Interior Ministry and Serbian secret police offices and parallel courts exist in Kosovo.

But contrary to Ivanko's statement and the newspaper reports, UNMIK Police Deputy Commissioner Jim Lias said the international police force had no proof of MUP stations in Kosovo.

"Here, (in Kosovo) there are only Kosovo Police Service stations. If you have proof, send it to the police and they will conduct an investigation," he said during remarks Friday in the Serb enclave of Caglavica.

KPS representative Reshat Maliqi also rejected such claims reported by the Albanian-language papers in Pristina.

"We have no knowledge of facilities being used by parallel structures. So far, we have no such information and are aware only of facilities used by the UNMIK police and KPS," Maliqi said.

On Saturday, Serbian President Boris Tadic vehemently denied claims that MUP officials had been present in Kosovo.

"There are people who used to work for MUP prior to 1999 living in Kosovo, and they have every right to live there, because they lived there earlier. No one can chase them out of their own homes," he said at the opening of a "For a European Serbia" campaign ahead of next month's general elections.

He said the presence of Serbian policemen in Kosovo would be a serious violation of Resolution 1244, which Serbia wants to implement.

Kosovo is also the focus of the campaign, which pits the parties of Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica against each other. On March 16th, Kostunica's close aide, Minister for Kosovo Slobodan Samardzic, presented a proposal to UNMIK on the functional division of Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. Tadic accused Samardzic of secretly proposing a "de facto division of Kosovo" to UNMIK.

However, Samardzic said that he has never advocated the partitioning of Kosovo and that the president is falsely accusing him. "The fact that Boris Tadic cannot tell the difference between a functional division between the Serbs and Albanians on the one hand and the partitioning of Kosovo on the other, is his problem," he said.

The UN is considering the document, but has not yet responded to it.