Kosovo Serbs sever ties with UN, provincial institutions

06/06/2006

Thousands attended a rally on Monday to protest recent violence in the province, as ethnic Serbs in Kosovo's north said they were cutting off ties with UNMIK and the province's institutions over the incidents.

(International Herald Tribune, Euronews, BBC - 06/06/06; AFP, AP - 05/06/06)

Kosovo has been under UN administration since June 1999. [UNMIK]

Kosovo Serbs declared a "state of emergency" in Zvecan and three other northern towns on Monday (5 June), and decided to sever all contacts with UNMIK and domestic institutions over recent attacks on members of their community.

"The state of emergency is proclaimed from today on the territory of four municipalities in northern Kosovo," AFP quoted Dragisa Milovic, a Kosovo Serb official in Zvecan, as saying. "All contacts with Kosovo institutions, in particular with UNMIK, are now being cut off, until those who have committed numerous crimes against the Serbs are caught."

The decision came days after Milan Veskovic, a 22-year-old Kosovo Serb from the northern village of Zitkovac, was killed by gunmen in an ambush Thursday as he drove home from a party.

Two people are being questioned over the incident, Kai Vittrup, the UN police commissioner in Kosovo, said on Monday. The investigation "has thus far not revealed an interethnic connection", he added.

An earlier shooting incident, in which two Kosovo Serbs working at a gas station were seriously injured and are recovering in hospital, also did not "appear to be ethnically motivated", according to the top UN police official. However, the perpetrators' identities have not been established.

On Monday, several thousand Kosovo Serbs attended a rally in Zvecan to protest violence over the past ten days.

"The attacks were systematic, planned crimes to intimidate and ethnically cleanse the Serb population from Kosovo," said Momir Kasalovic, a representative of several Kosovo Serb municipalities. Blaming the latest incidents on Kosovo Albanian separatists, he also said UNMIK has failed to ensure the protection of his community.

The leaders of the about 50,000 Kosovo Serbs living in the province's north demanded the return of Serbian police, which left Kosovo following the 1998-1999 conflict. They also urged the members of their ethnic group working in health care, education and local government not to take their salaries from those bodies, but directly from Belgrade.

Legally still part of Serbia-Montenegro, Kosovo has been under UN administration since June 1999. Talks on the province's final status began in February and are expected to be completed by the end of this year. The majority of Kosovo Albanians, who make up 90 per cent of the territory's population of 2 million, hope the UN-led negotiations will lead to full independence. Belgrade says it is only willing to grant substantial autonomy.

Western powers involved in the process of determining Kosovo's future have ruled out a return to the pre-1999 situation or the province's division along ethnic lines as possible outcomes of the status talks. According to a report in the International Herald Tribune on Tuesday, diplomats have voiced concern that if Kosovo achieves independence, resistance by ethnic Serbs in the north could escalate into a unilateral bid to partition the province.

Speaking in Pristina on Monday, Vittrup said UNMIK was "putting in place additional security procedures to ensure the safety of all Kosovo citizens".

Last week, NATO announced plans to reopen a base in Kosovo's north ahead of the final settlement. "For operational reasons we see the need to reuse this installation," KFOR spokesman Colonel Pio Sabetta told Reuters.