Gendarmerie in Kosovo – Kurti’s election strategy or new pressure on Serbs in the north?

At a time when representatives of police unions in Kosovo are warning that the police lack even the basic working conditions, including health insurance, Kosovo’s caretaker government has announced the formation of a new security formation – a gendarmerie. While supporters of Albin Kurti present the move as strengthening the security system, the opposition sees it as part of an election campaign strategy. For Serbs, however, there is no dilemma, analysts told Kosovo Online – in both cases, the ultimate target remains northern Kosovo.

Written by: Petar Rosic

“The gendarmerie will mainly deal with combating crime and corruption in border areas. It will fight terrorism... The gendarmerie is something between the police and the military,” Kurti announced earlier this week.

Late last night, in talks with U.S. congressmen – Keith Self, Ritchie Torres, Mike Lawler and George Latimer – he said that it was not intended as a replacement for KFOR, but would cooperate with it.

His announcement sparked numerous criticisms from the opposition.

“When you have nothing to offer citizens in terms of the economy and development, then you start producing ‘new structures’ for election propaganda,” said Ganimete Musliu of the Democratic Party of Kosovo.

Her party colleague Arben Gega said that before discussing new security structures, institutions must provide health and protective insurance for police officers.

Political analyst Arton Demhasaj made similar accusations.

“The current government would do better to provide uniforms, clothing, and the necessary conditions for the police and military instead of dealing with these meaningless pre-election ideas,” he said.

Contrary to Resolution 1244

On the other hand, the director of the Kosovo Center for Security Studies, Mentor Vrajolli, recalled that Kosovo and KFOR have an agreement under which the Kosovo Security Force (KSF) cannot go to the north without consent, noting that the gendarmerie could fill that gap.

Milovan Drecun, chairman of the Serbian Parliament’s Committee on Defense and Internal Affairs, also warned about this, but stressed that such a formation should not exist at all under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244.

The director of the Serbian government’s Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Petar Petkovic, also reacted, stating that the plans to form a Kosovo gendarmerie were announced for the purposes of Albin Kurti’s election campaign, emphasizing that KFOR remains the only legitimate armed force in Kosovo.

“Albin Kurti’s pre-election fantasies and desperate moves announcing the formation of some kind of gendarmerie unit are being promoted in order to gain cheap political points because his campaign is obviously not going as planned. There is neither a basis nor room for Kurti to form any paramilitary or parapolice units outside existing agreements, much less deploy them in Serbian communities in northern Kosovo and Metohija,” the statement from the Office for Kosovo and Metohija said.

Appearing on Radio Television of Serbia this morning, Petkovic described Kurti’s announcement of forming a gendarmerie as an attempt to further militarize northern Kosovo.

“In the Brussels Agreement, point 9 clearly states that the police in the north must reflect the ethnic structure, which means that Serbs must be in the police force and that there should be no long-barreled weapons,” Petkovic stressed.

NATO: Consultations with KFOR Necessary

Kosovo Online also sought a response from NATO.

The Alliance told the portal that it was “carefully monitoring” announcements by Kosovo institutions regarding the formation of a gendarmerie and expected Kosovo’s security organizations to “continue a cooperative approach, coordinating with KFOR for the sake of security and regional stability.”

The response also stated that the NATO Advisory and Liaison Team supports the development of the Kosovo Security Force in line with its original civil protection mandate through capacity building and the coordination of education and training.

The same question was posed to NATO Assistant Secretary General for Partnerships Kevin Hamilton.

“We need more information about that idea. Any issue related to security in Kosovo must be consulted with KFOR and NATO institutions. We hope to receive more information,” Hamilton told Kosovo Online.

Pre-Election “Repackaging”

Commenting on the announcement of the formation of a gendarmerie, RTS portal editor Rade Maroevic told Kosovo Online that it was not essentially a new security structure, but rather a “repackaging” of existing formations.

“You can call those units whatever you want – firefighters, gendarmerie, pioneers... it’s all the same. This has to be resolved at a completely different level, and I think that the announcement of forming a gendarmerie is just part of that election campaign in which voters are now supposed to be attracted by repackaging the Kosovo Protection Corps, security forces, and now the gendarmerie,” Maroevic said.

According to him, Kurti believes that such a move will help him win over “hardline” voters, including some former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

“Kurti believes the gendarmerie will bring those votes back to him. This is simply an election campaign and an attempt to reach a solution through repackaging that would suit Pristina. It certainly would not suit the Serbs in northern Kosovo, but above all, it is merely part of the election campaign,” Maroevic said.

Speaking about the role of KFOR, Maroevic said that the mission had often failed to react in a timely manner over the past decades.

“In 80 percent of cases during the previous 27 years, KFOR did nothing. In some situations it did important things, but in others nothing at all, and I fear that this time too it will look the other way and react only once a problem occurs, which I believe is wrong,” he said.

Nevertheless, he believes that KFOR will remain the key security factor for a long time.

“As things stand now, KFOR will remain the only true force on that administrative boundary for many years to come, and it is a major question whether anyone will replace them anytime soon,” Maroevic concluded.

Reduced Role of EULEX

Former Kosovo Police colonel Refki Morina, on the other hand, assessed that the formation of a gendarmerie represents an important security step forward and a professional mechanism that would not have militaristic goals, but would contribute to reducing the role of international missions, above all EULEX.

“It will protect the northern border toward Serbia, but also borders throughout Kosovo. There are often dilemmas among the population because, on the one hand, the formation of a gendarmerie is seen as positive, while on the other hand there is skepticism and fear that it could take over security responsibilities and become a militarized formation. But that is not true, because its goal is border protection and the fight against smuggling and organized crime, without interfering in the competencies of the police and military,” Morina said.

Speaking about the organizational model, he stressed that the gendarmerie should be based on the experiences of the French, Italian, and other gendarmeries, alongside the professional development of domestic security structures.

He believes that in such a case, the role of international missions, particularly EULEX, would gradually diminish.

“I believe that the gendarmerie mechanism being formed here should adopt elements of the French, Italian, and other gendarmeries. Through the professional development of the gendarmerie, police, and military, the role of international mechanisms will gradually decrease because domestic forces will take over border security. In that way, international troops will gradually be reduced in order to stabilize the security situation and peace in the Balkans and Kosovo,” the former Kosovo Police colonel said.

Assistant professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences Belgrade Stefan Surlic recalled that in Albin Kurti’s previous statements, representatives of the Serbian community had often been labeled as a security threat, and that the announcement of forming a gendarmerie in Kosovo represented an additional mechanism of pressure and intimidation.

“I think the gendarmerie is another mechanism for intimidating the Serbian community because, if we follow Albin Kurti’s statements, he emphasized that the gendarmerie would focus on border zones and combating terrorism. Since in previous statements he primarily targeted representatives of the Serbian community as terrorists, it is clear to conclude that such a formation would be concentrated precisely in northern Kosovo,” Surlic told Kosovo Online.

Concern Among Serbs in Kosovo

He believes this is a “creative solution” through which Pristina is attempting to find a model for the presence of military formations in the north.

“For years now, Kurti has been dealing with the question of when military formations will be able to enter northern Kosovo. I see this as a kind of creative solution, where the gendarmerie would be, as Kurti says, something between the military and the police. In that way, it would be presented as a major victory, especially during elections,” he assessed.

Speaking about the role of KFOR, Surlic said that the influence of international forces was gradually weakening, which he attributes to the policies of key NATO member states.

“Their role is becoming smaller and smaller and, unfortunately, the governments of the key NATO member states bear responsibility for that. They have a strategy of gradual withdrawal from Kosovo, while the United States is announcing a complete withdrawal, which in practice would mean transferring responsibility primarily to Kosovo forces,” Surlic said.

According to him, such announcements are causing concern among Serbs in Kosovo, who see KFOR as the only military force capable of protecting them.

“KFOR will certainly continue to exist, but the obvious reduction of its mandate is a major problem. Neither has this issue been part of the dialogue, nor can it be interpreted as a sign that the forces in Kosovo have built a healthy multi-ethnic society and full coexistence between Serbs and Albanians. We are still in a kind of post-conflict management phase, and because of that, the presence of international forces remains absolutely necessary,” Surlic concluded.