Red ribbon for the police station, what else is the Kosovo government building in the north?

Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti has repeatedly announced his government's investments—construction of roads, highways, schools, green spaces—in all municipalities, without discrimination against any community or region of Kosovo. However, when it comes to the predominantly Serbian municipalities in the north, the projects promoted by the government with ribbon-cutting ceremonies are primarily the renovated police stations.

Written by: Dusica Radeka Djordjevic

On August 2, Kurti, together with Interior Minister Xhelal Sveçla, opened a police station in Socanica, a settlement in the municipality of Leposavic, stating that it had been "significantly renovated, to the point where it could be considered newly built." On that occasion, the mayor of Leposavic, Ljujlzim Hetemi, announced that a new police station would soon be built from the ground up in the settlement of Lesak.

Last October, construction of a police station began near the "Jovan Cvijic" elementary school in Zubin Potok, and prior to that, the Kosovo police had built four rapid-response border police bases in the north.

In February, it was announced that 21 houses for minority communities were being built in four northern municipalities, but other projects financed by the Kosovo budget, aside from the removal of Serbian road signs in Cyrillic and their replacement with "signs in accordance with Kosovo laws," are almost nonexistent.

Speaking about the achievements of his cabinet over three years, Prime Minister Albin Kurti stated in April that "many actions focused on the well-being of citizens" had been undertaken in the north, such as road construction. He cited the road connecting Srbica with the Gazivode Lake as an example. However, residents of Zubin Potok perceived this infrastructure project as a means for faster deployment of police units to Gazivode.

Kurti also mentioned the modernization of telecommunications infrastructure and investment in pumping stations to address water supply issues in villages in the municipalities of Zvecan and Leposavic. Still, it seems that his government is most focused on building infrastructure for police needs in the north.

Milica Andric Rakic, Program Manager of the NGO Social Initiative, told Kosovo Online that the level of public investments in Kosovo is generally very low, and in the municipality of North Mitrovica, the only visible investments are in homes for Albanian returnees and announcements of police station construction.

"The only public investments we have seen in the municipality of North Mitrovica, where investments are supposedly most visible, are either homes for Albanian returnees or announcements of police station construction, like the initiative to build such a facility in the Military Repair Center. More recently, we have seen the opening of a police station in Socanica in the north. We truly do not have any visible improvements or investments in public spaces, but I must emphasize that this does not apply only to Serbian areas. In general, the level of public investments in Kosovo is very low," Andric Rakic noted.

She added that even when there are some investments related to returnee families, the rest of the infrastructure is not funded, making their resettlement less effective.

"There are no investments in schools in the north that provide instruction in the Albanian language, nor in healthcare infrastructure. Recently, it was reported that in the Health Center or Family Medicine Center in North Mitrovica, there is only one on-duty doctor. So, on the one hand, you have a lot of populist moves like building houses for returnees, but on the other hand, nothing is being done to ensure that any community, whether Albanian or Serbian, and regardless of which system they use, receives quality services," said Andric Rakic.

She emphasized that a six-month performance report of the government was just released, showing that the Ministry for Communities and Returns, led by the only Serbian minister in the Kosovo government, Nenad Rasic, has spent less than one percent of its budget for capital investments, the Ministry of Infrastructure around 20 percent, and the Ministry of Health below 20 percent.

"That’s the performance so far, and most of the year has already passed. The only ministry efficiently using its budget for capital investments is the Ministry of Defense. The only significant investments and purchases are for the Kosovo Security Force (KBS), while everything else in Kosovo is more or less stagnant, and there is no real discussion of infrastructural projects or public investments anywhere. The biggest infrastructural project of this government is a pedestrian bridge and a few kilometers of highway in Podujevo, which is a serious problem. In addition to the lack of foreign investments, there are not even domestic public investments, which is very damaging for businesses," Andric Rakic assessed.

The construction of police stations and bases in northern Kosovo is seen by Mazlum Baraliu, a Constitutional Law professor at the University of Pristina, as a security issue. He explained that this has occurred due to what he describes as Serbia's "aggressive behavior."

He told Kosovo Online that especially after the events in Banjska, it was most likely considered strategically necessary, and that this was not only the assessment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the police. Despite claims that there is no cooperation with KFOR and the international community, Baraliu emphasized that coordination still exists because "nothing can be done without them."

"This is a security issue. Serbia behaved aggressively. They committed aggression, and it was military aggression, not terrorism, but military, state aggression. There are about five or six police substations in Socanica and other places, and this is for the benefit of all citizens because all citizens were endangered," Baraliu stated.

Ognjen Karanovic, an analyst at the Center for Social Stability, told Kosovo Online that no one can expect institutions under the control of Albin Kurti to invest in facilities, resources, or capacities that could benefit citizens regardless of their religious, ethnic, racial, or national affiliation. He added that by building police stations in northern Kosovo, Kurti is continuing a policy aimed at the complete removal of the Serbian national identity.

Karanovic further assessed that there are not only no investments in the predominantly Serbian areas in the north but also none in Albanian areas, because the establishment in Pristina is not interested in Albanians either—only in their "personal gain."

"Certainly, Albin Kurti's attention is now focused on the north of Kosovo, specifically on the four municipalities in the north, where there is an absolute Serbian, demographic, and ethnic majority. His intentions are clear; by opening police stations, instruments of repression, he continues his policy which is very simple and monstrous, as his goal is the complete physical and biological eradication of the Serbian national identity from Kosovo and Metohija. He believes that by doing this, he will strengthen the so-called statehood or independence of the Albanian separatist movement in the southern Serbian province, which is a characteristic of all aggressive, violent regimes or policies and ideologies, to which he absolutely belongs," Karanovic states.

He adds that anyone who visits the Albanian communities in Kosovo will see that there are actually no investments in Kosovo and that there are no state institutions that should serve the citizens, but rather corruption and crime prevail.

"I fully understand what Albin Kurti is doing; I just wonder how long the international community or the mentors of the so-called independence of Kosovo and Metohija intend to watch this with their own eyes and pretend not to see. The Quint countries, the entire political West, which are the creators of the fake state in Pristina, tolerate all of this because, for example, they call the closure of Serbian post offices in northern Kosovo, the opening of these police stations, and the elimination of the dinar the beginning of the functioning of the state across the entire territory of Kosovo. So, for them, it is legitimate. They know very well that this is actually a mechanism for removing the Serbian people from Kosovo, but they don't care. They want Pristina to be independent," Karanovic concluded.