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North Mitrovica has a Tryst With Destiny
by
Neeraj K Singh

On Monday 23 July UNMIK Police was operating a traffic checkpoint in North Mitrovica carrying out random checks of vehicles. Suddenly, a group of ‘Bridge Watchers’ appeared on the scene and began protesting against the police action. Their contention was that UNMIK Police had no ‘right’ to carry out such checks in North Mitrovica.

Who then should police North Mitrovica? Some suggestions indicate that the Serb Police should. If the implication is that Serbs can only be safe under the Serb Police, then by that logic every minority community in Serbia or the Yugoslav Federation should legitimately be allowed their own police force. Also, these protagonists would then have to offer a solution for policing Gracanica, Plementina, Strpce and other Serb enclaves all over Kosovo. And what about places like Kamenica, Novo Brdo and so on where the Serbs are residing in mixed settlements with other communities?

There is nothing unique about having minority communities in Yugoslavia or Kosovo. Every nation has minorities and each has found its own way to coexist with them. It has also been clearly brought out in many parts of the world that no community, however miniscule a minority it may be, can be totally obliterated, or even politically or culturally dominated by the majority. Some people have learnt that lesson the hard way; others have been wiser and shown greater foresight and self-restraint. The ‘pogroms’ in Russia, or the Nazi holocaust in Germany and other parts of Europe, did not settle matters but only created grounds for greater turmoil which spared neither the victims of the initial upheaval nor its perpetrators. The end has invariably been unmitigated human suffering, most often of innocent people who were never a party to the exclusivist ideologies that underlay the genocide.

However, while the primary responsibility for building an atmosphere of trust and communal harmony lies with the majority community, it is for the minorities to come forth and participate in the social and political life of Kosovo as responsible citizens. Holding on to a perpetual ‘minority psychosis’ characterized by a ‘them and us’ syndrome based on extreme distrust and collective insecurity will only serve to precipitate social tensions.

In this case the choice before the Serbs of North Mitrovica is not between the Serb Police and the Kosovo Police. That will come later. The immediate point of contention is the activity of the UNMIK Police as the first step to creating an atmosphere conducive to the eventual transfer of police responsibility to the Kosovo Police Service.

It was under extremely compelling circumstances that the United Nations had to undertake direct policing responsibility in Kosovo instead of just monitoring the restoration of law and order by local authorities in the post-conflict environment. A grave wrong had been done to the people of Kosovo under the Yugoslav regime. By 1999, the Serb Police had lost its credibility as an impartial and judicious institution in Kosovo and could not have been allowed to continue without risking further bloodshed.

The fact that those in office had indulged in excesses has now been accepted even by the authorities in Belgrade. This is evident from their efforts to exhume mass graves in Serbia and the extradition of Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague to face trial for war crimes. At the same time, it is quite evident that the common Serbian citizens were not aware of, and certainly not party to, the atrocities that were committed by the former regime. The world is willing to believe that, and this offers an opportunity to the Serbian people to return to the global civil society with their self-respect intact. Individuals who erred will get the punishment due to them, but the Serbs as a whole are not on trial.

At the same time, however, the Serbs of Kosovo must shake off the hegemony of their self-appointed representatives in Kosovo, particularly those like the ‘Bridge Watchers’ of North Mitrovica. At worst, their ideas smack of the retrograde philosophy of ethnic cleansing. At best their agenda appears to be to prevent the building of bridges of friendship between the Serbs and Albanians of Kosovo. There can be no doubt as to the ability of UNMIK Police and KFOR to impose order in any part of Kosovo. Even the ‘Bridge Watchers’ would not be so naïve as to presume that they can have their way by use of force. Then what do they aim to achieve by such brinkmanship? Their actions appear to be prompted by a more sinister design to destabilise Kosovo through maintaining an artificial sense of insecurity among Kosovo-Serbs and by provoking a strong military or police action against them so that the unsuspecting people can be weaned away to their own regressive political agenda.

By doing so they are certainly not serving the interests of the Serbs or of Kosovo. It is our belief that before the Albanians and Serbs of Kosovo live peacefully together, they have to learn to live peacefully apart. Gradually, as the intense ethnic hatred and scars of war fade away, tempers will cool and people of all ethnicities will view issues from a more rational platform. However contentious the demographic history of Kosovo might be for the Serbs and Albanians, it cannot override the sheer geographical reality of Kosovo that dictates their common destiny. It is with a clear purpose that UNMIK Police has refrained from adopting a reactive stance in North Mitrovica against petty provocations. Our proactive agenda aims at evolving a spontaneous consensus for peace and respect for law among the Serbs, Albanians and other ethnic groups in Kosovo.

Any police measure that is perceived as an ‘imposition’ by the people at large, is bound to fail. Respect for the rule of law has to be inculcated in the people to a point where they begin to accept the police as an instrument for self-regulation of their social existence. It is with this aim that UNMIK Police has chosen to adopt a more gradualist approach to law enforcement in North Mitrovica. Traffic checks are one of the most visible and universal applications of law in so far as it addresses people at large and is not restricted to criminals alone. It is also one of the least intrusive and yet most effective policing measures. When commuters are stopped, questioned and their documents or vehicles checked, it does not invade their individual privacy the way a house search does. Mobile checkpoints help the police to assert their area of responsibility with a view to reassure the law-abiding citizen and impose caution on the criminal. Above all, it inculcates a habit of lawful and orderly conduct among people.

Over the past three weeks UNMIK Police have been conducting regular vehicle checks in North Mitrovica. A primary purpose is to reduce the toll of death and injury on the region’s roads. The short stretch of road between Zvecan and Mitrovica North is known locally as “The Way of Death”. In the past 18 months there have been 11 persons killed on this road on account of high speed and dangerous driving. Among those killed are a 17-year-old-girl and a 26-year-old father of two. All of the victims were Serbs, 80% of them between 24 and 30 years of age.

Stray protests from small groups of misguided people notwithstanding, checkpoints were organized throughout last week and conducted without problems. Most encouraging has been the positive reaction of the local population. The people have clearly welcomed the efforts of UNMIK Police to provide safety and security in the region. This lends credence to our belief that the “Bridge Watchers” do not represent the Serbs of North Mitrovica. Safety and security is a basic right that the people of Kosovo deserve, and that we are pleased to be able to gradually extend to North Mitrovica.