Janjic and Antonijevic: Police checkpoints in the north of Kosovo are not a solution, there will be new incidents

The latest incident with the wounding of the Serbs in Zvecan showed how dangerous the militarization of the north of Kosovo with the presence of special units of the Kosovo police was, Dusan Janjic, the director of the Forum for Ethnic Relations, and Milan Antonijevic, a prominent civil sector activist, pointed out in an interview for Kosovo Online.

Janjic warns that the security vacuum in the north of Kosovo has not been filled, although everyone behaves as if it is, including the representatives of the international community and the Kosovo authorities.

"The security vacuum cannot be filled with Special Forces because they themselves are in a special state of tension and equipment, and their accumulation alone is not a guarantee, but a proof that there is no security. There will certainly be new incidents," Dusan Janjic believes.

Janjic states that the struggle has begun to change the Brussels Agreement from 2013, and to change the ethnic structure of the Kosovo Police and municipal structures by announcing new tenders.

"On the other hand, if some people are considered criminals or the Wagner Group and there is talk about it, there have been no actions, so it is propaganda and an attempt to politicize the problem. The key is how people from the authorities of Kosovo and Serbia will communicate about security issues. This way when incidents occur, KFOR is a small element within NATO, and EULEX does not do its job, but is reduced to observation," Janjic told Kosovo Online.

When asked if EULEX could take over the checkpoint near the Bistrica Bridge, Janjic answers in the negative.

"EULEX is a fraud, it cannot take over the point. They were first in charge of the economy and privatization, and when it got messed up when corruption came to light, the EU itself announced overnight that it was canceling that job and that EULEX was dealing with the training of the police forces, and immediately reduced the number of their own forces. This is about whether a joint platform of representatives of Serbia and Kosovo will be created regarding the issue of the return of the Serbs to the Kosovo Police and with what dynamics. It is obvious that through these incidents fear is spreading in the Serbian community, although the total number of incidents compared to similar places in the world is below the average, which means that here the people are more responsible than the politicians, but at the same time the people are suffering. There will certainly be new incidents," Janjic says.

When it comes to the reaction of the international community, Janjic believes that Germany and France support Kurti to continue to act as if the Serbs have not left the institutions and the Americans are clearly tired of some things and are becoming aggressive in seeking solutions to solve the security issue.

Civil sector activist and lawyer Milan Antonijevic told Kosovo Online that the latest incident showed that the issue of security was the most important for the Serbs in Kosovo.

"This incident is not the first in a series and shows that the issue of security is the most important for the Serbs in Kosovo. It is good that there is concern from the international community, but this case must not remain without an epilogue and details about what happened. This also shows how harmful militarization is in Kosovo and the checkpoints that are being set up must not become a practice, because they scare everyone, especially the Serbs. The dialogue between the President of Serbia and the Prime Minister of Kosovo is ongoing and the goal is to fully normalize relations, and these are not police checkpoints and sandbags, but full freedom of movement, full respect for human rights," Antonijevic says.