Five years since the first major ROSU raid in the north of Kosovo and the arrest of Marko Djuric

Five years ago today, ROSU special units made the first major incursion into the north of Kosovo, in North Mitrovica, where on March 26, 2018, a meeting was organized as part of the internal dialogue on Kosovo.

On that occasion, 38 people were injured, and, among others, the then director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija and Belgrade's main negotiator in the dialogue, Marko Djuric, was arrested.

Pictures showing members of the special police taking Djuric away with handcuffs have gone around the world.

At around 17:30, more than 200 members of the ROSU special police units, armed to the teeth, stormed the Mitrovac Palace, where the meeting was supposed to take place, and arrested Djuric with tear gas and stun grenades, hitting with butts and boots.

They kicked him, and knocked him to the floor, while they ordered the present citizens not to move, all the while keeping them at gunpoint, while they also hit the then-mayor of North Mitrovica, Goran Rakic, as well as the citizens who attended the rally.

During the action, the gathered citizens clashed with the Kosovo police who, during the intervention, fired tear gas and threw shock bombs at the gathered people in front of the court.

As TV Most reported at the time, shots, broken glass, and shouts in Albanian were heard during the action, and tear gas was also thrown into the hall of the Mitrovac Palace.

Djuric was escorted to Pristina with handcuffs by three special officers in a bent position, and the Kosovo Police building where the detention department is located was secured by dozens of members of the ROSU special unit.

They quickly transferred him from the car to the police building, and hundreds of Albanians who shouted derogatory words in the Serbian language accompanied him as he was taken into custody.

He was brought before a misdemeanor judge, after which it was decided to "deport him from Kosovo", and he was taken over by the Serbian police at the Merdare administrative crossing.

Together with Djuric, his associate Zeljko Jovic was arrested, who was injured in an attempt to resist arrest, and was treated in a hospital in northern Kosovska Mitrovica.

According to the media, Jovic was injured when the Special Forces of the Kosovo police ROSU forcefully entered the hall, and the hospital reported that he had been hit in the spinal column and that he could not feel his right leg for a while.

A total of 32 people had been injured during that incursion by ROSU units, said doctor Milan Ivanovic at the time, and among the injured was Damjan Jovic, an employee in the Office for Kosovo and Metohija.

In the hospital in North Mitrovica, more Serbian young men who were found at the entrance to the Mitrovica Palace when the Kosovo Special Forces broke in, and who suffered injuries in the lower back area, were treated.

During the operation to arrest Marko Djuric, Kosovo Special Forces, according to TV Most, attacked and injured RTS cameraman Vladimir Djuric, and later reported that journalist Rada Komazec from Republika Srpska had also been attacked, as well as journalists from TV Most and RTS in Kosovska Mitrovica.

Earlier that day, at the administrative crossing of Jarinje, Djuric, and Nikola Selakovic were banned from entering Kosovo, and as the Deputy Commander of the Kosovo Police, Besim Hoti said at the time, the task of banning entry had been given to the intervention units for the North region, which were implementing an operational plan in connection with banning the planned arrival of Serbian officials on the territory of Kosovo.

However, Djuric and Selakovic arrived in Kosovska Mitrovica shortly before 5 p.m. to take part in a conversation within the internal dialogue, and Djuric said on that occasion that they had come to convey the message to the Serbs that Kosovo and the north of Kosovo would never be part of self-proclaimed Kosovo or Greater Albania.

Serbian President, Aleksandar Vucic, after the arrest of Djuric, called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council and said that it had been "a brutal provocation, an act of insanity and the most serious criminal act carried out by the Pristina authorities, apparently supported by some countries".

As he pointed out then, Djuric had not gone to Kosovo illegally, as had been falsely represented in Pristina, but his arrival in Kosovo, in accordance with the agreements that Belgrade had with Pristina, had been announced three times.

He pointed out that he, as the president, needed to inform 72 hours in advance that he was coming to Kosovo, and Marko Djuric, as the chief negotiator, 24 hours.

"Serbian officials do not ask Kosovo for permission to enter, but inform them about their arrival in Kosovo," Vucic said at the time.

He later revealed that he then had told the Albanians that they had had until 7:30 p.m. to withdraw and release Marko Djuric, specifying that Djuric had been released at 7:20 p.m.