Milicevic: EULEX advisors are in the north due to numerous complaints about the work of special police units

Executive Director of the NGO "Aktiv", Miodrag Milicevic, stated for Kosovo Online that the specialized team of EULEX advisors deployed in the north to strengthen advisory and oversight capacities was the result of numerous complaints about the work of special units of the Kosovo Police.

Milicevic emphasized that EULEX was actually returning to its mandate, as agreed in 2008.

"I am confident that numerous complaints about the work of Kosovo's special units have led to this, as it was requested directly from EULEX on several occasions much earlier to deploy additional units in the north to establish a more effective system for monitoring the actions of special units. In this specific case, these teams that will be in the north, stationed at police stations, will mostly oversee the operations of the special unit and the Kosovo Police in general, in accordance with the laws, no more and no less than that", Milicevic stated.

As he emphasized, considering the fact that the Serbs had collectively left Kosovo institutions in November last year, a security and institutional vacuum had been created in northern Kosovo.

"One of the measures implemented by the Government of Kosovo is the deployment of additional police forces, which do not reflect the demographic picture of northern Kosovo. This is one of the most problematic aspects precisely because of the imbalance in implementing what was agreed upon in Brussels. In that regard, in my opinion, EULEX should have deployed additional forces much earlier, that is, strengthened its presence in the north, precisely to prevent any non-compliance with the law", Milicevic says.

He also adds that the question arises before the entire public, what actually happened in the overall process of functioning of police forces in northern Kosovo.

"In fact, the key fact is that numerous complaints were coming due to the inadequate actions of the special unit of the Kosovo Police. In this regard, numerous complaints in the last 24 months, mostly coming through the media, perhaps even directly or indirectly towards EULEX and other members of the international community, have prompted EULEX to make the decision and deploy additional forces to northern Kosovo to prevent any unpleasant and unwanted situations, such as we have witnessed not so long ago", Milicevic concluded.