Kosovo had repeatedly sounded the alarm about the movement of arms and weapons in north Kosovo along with security concerns, but they were interpreted as Pristina trying to find a way out of the EU-backed Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, according to Foreign Minister Donika Gervalla-Schwartz in an exclusive interview.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, a Kosovo police patrol was ambushed by some 30 heavily armed gunmen, accompanied by armoured vehicles, leaving one officer dead and another wounded. The men fled to a local monastery, where they barricaded themselves in and traded gunfire with police for hours.
Four Serbs were killed as Kosovo police fought to regain control, and subsequent investigations found a significant arsenal of weapons, ammunition, and armoured vehicles. Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla has since published documents he says link the attack to Belgrade, something Serbia has denied.
“For months, we have been telling our partners and allies that we have had police actions in stopping vehicles full of arms, but we felt they were not ready to listen to our concerns…We felt they wanted to interpret them for themselves as if we want to find a way out of the dialogue,” Gervalla said.
Kosovo has frequently raised security issues in north Kosovo, particularly concerning drugs and arms trafficking and attempts by Serbia to destabilise it through the mobilisation of criminal groups.
Arrests of those involved in such activities have consistently been met with accusations of ethnic cleansing from Belgrade, while the EU has called on Kosovo to reduce special police operatives’ presence in the region.
Gervalla continued she felt that those in Brussels did not believe Kosovo when it consistently rang the alarm over arms in the north, the hand of Belgrade in destabilising the country, and the motives of Serbia behind their calls for the Association of Serb Municipalities in the north.
“No one believed that the institutions of Kosovo, the police of Kosovo, can properly address these problems. We are not afraid, we are prepared, we are vigilant because we know it may not be the first or the last time,” she added.
She added that until Serbia gets a clear response from the international community, they will not stop their destabilisation efforts in Kosovo and other countries in the region.
“I hope and believe that Sunday has made clear for everybody, that this kind of dialogue, this kind of one-sided pressure put all on Kosovo, and having so much understanding for the inability of Serbia to be positive on this process, will end and should end.”
She also criticised the first statement of the EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell, which called the incident an “attack” and “hostilities”.
“The first statement of Mr Borrell was a really terrible one. You cannot ignore the facts and just put out a statement. But the problem is that it is not the first time that Mr Borrell and his team are doing that,” she added.
In a second statement issued by Borrell and subsequent communications from the EU, the attack has been consistently referred to as a terrorist attack.
After the terrorist attack, it is clear there are no more “both sides”. “It was a clear attack on our state, on our country, and it should be named like that. Sunday has changed everything,” she added.
Where was KFOR?
When asked how such a vast arsenal of weapons, including armoured vehicles, could pass under the nose of KFOR and whether NATO should be doing more, Gervalla said NATO and EU membership must now be on the cards.
“I believe that NATO should show a signal towards the citizens of Kosovo in opening the door for Kosovo. A NATO membership of Kosovo is one of the most important steps that will make our region more peaceful and more stable,” she said.
Kosovo applied for EU membership in December 2022 but is blocked by the non-recognition from member states Spain, Cyprus, Slovakia, Romania, and Greece. As for NATO, which also requires unanimity for new members, only 26 out of the 30 members recognise it.
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Over the weekend, NATO sent reinforcements to Kosovo after the build-up and subsequent withdrawal of Serbian troops at the border.
“Our way is the Euro-Atlantic way. We need to make a step towards NATO, and the structure of NATO a step towards Kosovo, so that the whole region is not running into a new war,” she added.
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In addition, now it is clear what happens when Serbia is appeased, “we expect the European Union to be clear and to take measures…Terrorist organisations should be labelled as what they are.”
As for the continuance of dialogue, Gervalla said it is impossible to continue business as usual after the recent events.
Tackling the calls for EU Envoy for the Dialogue, Miroslav Lajcak, to be removed from the dialogue process, Gervalla said it is not her place to tell the EU or member states that he should be removed, but this is not the first time Lajcak has shown “he does not have a strategy or a plan to lead this dialogue or facilitate it.”
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“I believe that the member states will think about that. And I hope that we will have a process of dialogue that will be able and capable to bring progress,” she said.
As for Kosovo’s perceived reluctance to continue with dialogue, Gervalla said that despite doubts, they accepted the so-called Franco-German plan as a step between now and mutual recognition.
“I still believe that only through mutual recognition, only when Serbia recognises the reality in the Balkans, only when Serbia recognises that the borders in the on the Balkans will not change anymore, only then will it be possible for Serbia to live as neighbours.”
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When asked what happens to the Association of Serb Municipalities, pushed for by the EU, after the terrorist attack, which Prishtina has denounced as an attempt to take over the north of Kosovo, Gervalla said, “The events of Sunday show how Serbia does not want something coordinating the needs of Serbs in Kosovo, it wants something to make the Republic of Kosovo implode from the inside, and this will not happen.”
Gervalla said that the 2013 and 2015 proposed associations are not in line with the constitution, but Pristina is ready to discuss with their citizens if there is a need to improve their rights in a certain way.
“If it is needed, there are some preconditions that this mechanism must fill,” she said, explaining it can not be more than a coordinating role, it cannot violate the constitution, and it must not violate the functioning of the Republic of Kosovo resulting in a situation like Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
We will not continue repeating past mistakes,” she said.
However, the minister highlighted that Kosovo has a progressive constitution that respects minority rights more than other European countries. Therefore, she said she doubted the Association was about improving Kosovo Serbs’ rights.
Minorities in Kosovo enjoy considerable rights under the constitution, including Serbian being an official language, guaranteed seats in parliament regardless of election results, representation at a municipal level, the right to nominate key police officials in Serb majority areas, Serbian language taught and studied in Serb-majority schools instead of Albanian, and at least one minister from the Serb minority in government.
But in late 2022, Serbs resigned en masse from all government institutions and departments, leaving them unrepresented. They also did not run or vote in local elections called to replace them and protested when Albanian mayors entered their premises, resulting in unrest that left over 30 KFOR officers, as well as journalists and citizens injured.
“Because in every discussion with Belgrade, we do not see that they aim to improve the lives of Serbian citizens in Kosovo. It is always only about strengthening the influence of Belgrade over the institutions in Kosovo and the citizens of Kosovo.”
She added that the five Western Balkan countries that came out of the former Yugoslavia all have to deal with Serbia, “dealing with them like territories that need to be brought back to Serbia again. This is not good, it does not promise a good future for our region.”
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Regarding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s recent statements opposing the EU foreign policy line on Kosovo-Serbia in the new context and his proposal of a wider conference to address peace between Kosovo and Serbia, Gervalla said it is a dangerous idea.
“I’m afraid when I hear conferences because I’m reminded of what happened in the 90s. From conference to conference, while the people in Bosnia Herzegovina were dying. So this is a very dangerous proposal,” she said.
“We do not need international conferences; we are sovereign states, and we need a process that is honest and sincere and opens real ways for Kosovo and Serbia to normalise their relations.”
She concluded that she hopes Rama and others in the region will be “stronger” in looking for “real solutions and not for what is so easy to say but does not have any impact on the ground.”
(Alice Taylor | Euractiv.com)
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