Early in the dark hours of the morning of November 17, a large number of KFOR and EULEX vehicles apparently tried to cross Serbian barricades near Zupce in north Kosovo. The locals received information suggesting they were carrying Kosovo Albanian police to the Zubin Potok crossing point (Gate 31). The local Serbs reacted quickly and reinforced their barricades. After some tense moments, they agreed to allow some of the KFOR vehicles through after KFOR made clear they would not seek to remove barricades and were just trying to exercise freedom of movement. A second KFOR convoy including EULEX turned back to the south.
It is difficult to understand what KFOR and EULEX were playing at. Testing whether the Serbs were still awake? Trying to sneak by with a fast one? In the event, everyone acted responsibly and conflict was avoided. But KFOR accomplished nothing beyond proving yet again that there are no use-of-force solutions to the northern Kosovo Serbs' refusal to accept Kosovo institutions.
But on the other hand, it is easy to understand the Quint's eagerness to be seen doing something other than wait for President Tadic to surrender to EU pressures on membership. The EU, UK, Germany, France and US all are threatening to hold up EU candidacy if Serbia does not renew talks with Kosovo and clear the roads in the north. The Kosovo Albanians are waiting for their internationals to do something. The wild card here is the northern Kosovo Serbs. Whoever huffs and puffs, they must be the ones to bring down their "brick" walls. And they remain unconvinced. KFOR/EULEX actions on the ground do nothing to encourage them to end their peaceful resistance. The Quint remains caught between a rock and a hard place on the ground in Kosovo.
Also in that tough spot is President Tadic. He is facing those EU/US demands with a target date of December 9. Either Serbia will be granted candidacy status or not. The Kosovo conditions have been made clear to him. But as much as he might like to be accommodating, he cannot be seen bowing to threats. In London to meet with the British PM, Tadic told a meeting that he cannot disband "parallel" structures in north Kosovo because they are legal Serbian ones. He said that if the EU does not grant Serbia candidacy unless it recognizes Kosovo, it would be the EU's mistake.
Indeed it would be the EU's mistake. Its threats to give up Kosovo and end support for the northern Serbs won't work. So then on December 9, it will either have to put up or shut up - grant candidacy or delay it. Either way, it loses leverage on Serbia. And it loses most if it delays. With springtime elections in Serbia looming, delay means that Tadic most likely will not survive the political backlash of being denied. Nikolic would seem unlikely to then accept terms Tadic couldn't. Seems the EU is caught in the ultimate hard spot. It has serious other problems and maybe never was enthusiastic about the deep Balkans anyway. But letting it slip away? Over the few hundred square kilometers of north Kosovo?
It is difficult to understand what KFOR and EULEX were playing at. Testing whether the Serbs were still awake? Trying to sneak by with a fast one? In the event, everyone acted responsibly and conflict was avoided. But KFOR accomplished nothing beyond proving yet again that there are no use-of-force solutions to the northern Kosovo Serbs' refusal to accept Kosovo institutions.
But on the other hand, it is easy to understand the Quint's eagerness to be seen doing something other than wait for President Tadic to surrender to EU pressures on membership. The EU, UK, Germany, France and US all are threatening to hold up EU candidacy if Serbia does not renew talks with Kosovo and clear the roads in the north. The Kosovo Albanians are waiting for their internationals to do something. The wild card here is the northern Kosovo Serbs. Whoever huffs and puffs, they must be the ones to bring down their "brick" walls. And they remain unconvinced. KFOR/EULEX actions on the ground do nothing to encourage them to end their peaceful resistance. The Quint remains caught between a rock and a hard place on the ground in Kosovo.
Also in that tough spot is President Tadic. He is facing those EU/US demands with a target date of December 9. Either Serbia will be granted candidacy status or not. The Kosovo conditions have been made clear to him. But as much as he might like to be accommodating, he cannot be seen bowing to threats. In London to meet with the British PM, Tadic told a meeting that he cannot disband "parallel" structures in north Kosovo because they are legal Serbian ones. He said that if the EU does not grant Serbia candidacy unless it recognizes Kosovo, it would be the EU's mistake.
Indeed it would be the EU's mistake. Its threats to give up Kosovo and end support for the northern Serbs won't work. So then on December 9, it will either have to put up or shut up - grant candidacy or delay it. Either way, it loses leverage on Serbia. And it loses most if it delays. With springtime elections in Serbia looming, delay means that Tadic most likely will not survive the political backlash of being denied. Nikolic would seem unlikely to then accept terms Tadic couldn't. Seems the EU is caught in the ultimate hard spot. It has serious other problems and maybe never was enthusiastic about the deep Balkans anyway. But letting it slip away? Over the few hundred square kilometers of north Kosovo?
It's simple, Russia offered the solution, Serbs can go back to Russia for repatriation in Siberia: "For Rogozin, as the Interfax new agency quoted him as saying, a much simpler solution would be to offer Kosovar Serbs resettlement in areas where Russia "feels great demographic problems, especially where the population is Slavonic -- east of the Urals."
ReplyDelete"Kosovar Serbs should be enrolled in the repatriation program for the Russians. The Serbs are not strangers to us. They are the people who could get a second homeland in Russia," the ambassador said."
Kosovo disturbances mimicked in training scenario
ReplyDeleteHOHENFELS, Germany – The chaos arrived in the early afternoon, hours after negotiations failed.
As soldiers in riot gear approached a makeshift roadblock and the mob that erected it, they were met with taunts and jeers. "U.S. go home!" the crowd began to chant. Then someone hurled a rock.
The riot that ensued was a training simulation – the "rocks" were sandbags, the mob was a group of role-playing Germans, retired soldiers and an active-duty platoon.
Yet it was a mimic of real events in Kosovo, the newly independent Balkan state — and the destination of a National Guard unit that recently trained at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels. This summer, ethnic Serbs erected barriers on roads in the country’s north, in a dispute over border crossings into Serbia, forcing violent confrontations with local police and a tense standoff with NATO peacekeepers.
Officials at JMRC, which regularly prepares U.S. and multinational soldiers for the NATO force known as KFOR, or Kosovo Force, decided to re-create the events as a training tool after a visit to the country last month.
Important tasks during a civil disturbance include holding formation in a line, minding flanks, responding with appropriate force and generally keeping composure at a time when emotions run high, said Lt. Col. Eric McFadden, a training leader at JMRC.
http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/kosovo-disturbances-mimicked-in-training-scenario-1.161166
"The deep Balkans". That put a smile on my face, very clever. To complete the picture we only need would-be carpetbaggers imagining they are engaging in Reconstruction.
ReplyDeleteOh wait, we got them.