Fishermen on police action: We are scared; you go fishing, and someone with a finger on the trigger is standing behind you

Following yesterday's action by fishery inspectors who, accompanied by the Kosovo police, issued fishing permits at Lake Gazivode in Zubin Potok, residents of northern municipalities wonder who the individuals were conducting this action, where they came from, and who ordered them to do so.

What particularly shocked everyone in northern Kosovo is that these inspectors were accompanied by armed police officers carrying long guns. Fisherman Miroslav Gvozdic from Zvecan told Kosovo Online that the Kosovo police's action, which involved long guns and requesting fishing permits from fishermen at Lake Gazivode, was nothing but pressure on everyone in the north, affecting every individual.

Gvozdic sees the action of the Kosovo Police as an attack on sports fishermen who work daily to preserve the fish population and protect nature.

"It's yet another attack on sports fishermen because controlling a sports fisherman who has come to relax in nature with long guns is terrible. I've been a member of one of the fishing associations for almost 40 years, and we've always worked to manage our lake. We organized ourselves and conducted checks because there were many nets. We organized ourselves, restocked the lake with the help of our friends from Serbia and donations, and just when we were getting on our feet, when we improved the fish population, removed the nets, and created a fishing paradise, now some new people have arrived—people who want to rule our lake. They come for inspections with long-barreled weapons and use force, nothing should be done like that. It's intimidation; I don't understand what it means. Caution must be exercised, but not in this way," Gvozdic says.

He explains that the long guns have frightened fishermen, who are subjected to harassment.

"Of course they're scared. Now, when you go to the lake to fish and someone comes to inspect you with a finger on the trigger, I don't understand that because, in my 40 years, I've never experienced anything like it. Going fishing and waiting for someone to come with a finger on the trigger. What am I doing? What can they find in my tackle box or bag? Fish. This is a sport; we've come to relax and fish, not to be harassed by so-called fishermen, fishery inspectors, or whatever they are," Gvozdic says.