Kosovo: KFOR Continues to Act Arbitrarily & Outside UNSCR 1244

NATO continues its effort to cut off northern Serbs from Serbia. KFOR troops remain at Gates 1 (Leposavic) and 31 (Zubin Potok) where they prevent commercial traffic while also seeking to close other roads that cross the boundary. The latest is “DOG 33,” a crossing on the road from the north to Novi Pazar. This while everyone should be breathing a bit easier because of the new agreement on customs seals that could allow the situation in the north to revert to the way it was before Pristina sent its special police into the north on July 26. The northerners responded with peaceful road blocks of their own.

KFOR issued a statement on September 4 to justify its blockade at DOG 33. It explained that the action was triggered by the effort of three trucks carrying fuel to “illegally” cross the boundary. KFOR stopped the trucks under “UNMIK legal regulation according to which DOG 33 is an unauthorized BCP [boundary crossing point].... Access of commercial traffic to Kosovo through DOG 33 is illegal and has to be denied.” KFOR also notes that “after the trucks were stopped in Saturday afternoon demonstrators had gathered together on the Kosovan side of DOG 33. After an aggressive phase yesterday early evening, they calmed and stayed overnight.” The local Serbs then mounted a road block of their own. In response to all this, KFOR decided that for “security reasons,” “no traffic, no potential opponent demonstrators or radicals are authorized to move to DOG 33.” Again citing its enforcement of “UNMIK legal regulations,” KFOR “will continue to close DOG 33 for vehicles with commercial goods and trucks for security reasons.” Finally, the statement warns about “the consequences of violent or criminal acts.”

One could applaud KFOR's decision now to uphold UNMIK regulations, though this might have been thought to be a police matter and therefore left to EULEX. But this also leads to the question of which UNMIK regulation, then, KFOR is enforcing in closing Gates 1 and 31 to commercial traffic? In reality, no need to be coy about this. KFOR is doing as it pleases, protected by the US. KFOR is citing UNMIK regulation in the case of DOG 33 because it is handy and ignoring the requirement to be status-neutral at the two Gates as the Quint finds that more convenient. One wonders if anyone will eventually be held legally responsible for NATO's abrogation of UNSCR 1244 and international law? Maybe at the Hague if it leads to violence?

The northern Serbs see events tending towards a crucial decision point. Three of the northern mayors held a press conference on September 5. The Mayor of Zvecan accused KFOR of “trying to turn administrative crossings in the north of the province into border crossings, putting itself in the service of Kosovo institutions and doing Hashim Thaci's dirty work.” The Mayor of North Mitrovica warned that “people will not sit idly in their homes and watch the administrative line get closed down, and watch us being shut into a ghetto and surrounded by barbed wire by the international community.” He added that “the people will go out into the streets peacefully to say they do not want to be separated from Serbia.” He called on KFOR to play a calming role otherwise the northern leaders will not be able to keep the situation from escalating: “Some other people will then take over, and we will have to step back. It is up to KFOR to decide it they want these problems solved through peaceful means, by agreement and in line with Resolution 1244, or if they will allow radical elements both on the Albanian and on the Serb side to take the initiative, which is not in the interest of the people, or of KFOR” The Mayor of Zubin Potok said pointedly that KFOR must show its “true face” as either an “occupying forces or a peacekeeping mission.”

Seems none of the Quint capitals – or the Western press – is paying attention. Then they all will express surprise when things spiral out of hand. As noted previously, this is anti-peacekeeping and it's dangerous.