Defense Minister Pistorius is visiting troops in Kosovo. There, where KFOR has been trying to contain the conflict between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians for almost 25 years. It is the longest mission so far for the Bundeswehr.
On the street in front of the town hall in the somewhat run-down mining town of Zvečan – around 1,300 inhabitants, almost all Kosovo Serbs – you can still see them: the large patches of charred tar. The Kosovo police cars burned here. The police officers were supposed to protect the Kosovo Albanian mayor, who had barricaded himself in the town hall. He had been elected a few weeks earlier, but only four percent of those eligible to vote; the vast majority of Serbs here in northern Kosovo had boycotted the election.
The square in front of the town hall is still a restricted area. Soldiers from the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force keep their distance, behind barriers and barbed wire. At the moment they are Bulgarian soldiers. Back then, at the end of May last year, it was soldiers from the USA, Italy, Poland and Hungary who stood between the fronts when violent hooligans, whipped up by local Serbian politicians, wanted to drive out the Albanian mayor. 93 NATO soldiers were injured, some critically.
KFOR: Bundeswehr has been there from the start
The KFOR contingent was then increased by 700 to almost 4,500 soldiers from currently 28 countries. There were significantly more after the end of the war almost 25 years ago, when it was a matter of disarming the ex-Yugoslav army and making something like peace possible in the first place. At that time the KFOR force was 48,000 strong and 40 countries took part.
A lot has happened since then and a lot has relaxed. With setbacks and outbreaks of violence between Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo, again and again. Especially last year.
The Germans were there from the start, initially with 8,000 soldiers. The Kosovo deployment is now the Bundeswehr’s longest foreign deployment. It has to be extended by the Bundestag every year. Approved upper limit at the moment: 400 soldiers. However, there are currently only about 80 in Kosovo, mainly at the headquarters in the capital Pristina.
Veneration for a Serbian war criminal in northern Kosovo. The mural of General Ratko Mladic still looks quite fresh.
That will change shortly: The Bundeswehr is sending an additional company with 155 soldiers to the Kosovo mission. But not because of the recent outbreaks of violence, but rather long-planned to replace an Austrian unit. But: “If necessary, we can increase the number of our forces at any time,” said Defense Minister Boris Pistorius last fall: “We are monitoring the situation on the ground very closely” in “close communication” with NATO allies.
Politician visits increase
The region has become more important again. Foreign Minister, Defense Minister, visits to the Western Balkans are increasing again. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was recently back to show his presence after the “violent attacks” on the Kosovo peacekeeping force, which were completely “unacceptable,” according to Stoltenberg.
He said this under the kind eyes of Mother Teresa, the national saint of all Albanians, including in Kosovo. The NATO Secretary General stopped by Vjosa Osmani, Kosovo’s President. In the reception hall of their office building, they simply pasted over a heroic mural with a poster of St. Teresa. The message: We are the “good guys” – actually.
“We are the good.” Poster of Mother Teresa in the reception hall of Kosovo President Osmani during the visit of NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg.
Stoltenberg’s next stop, once across the government parking lot: Albania’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti. Intimate enemy of Serbian President Aleksander Vucic. “Good and evil”? The West is firmly on Kosovo’s side, even if not all EU countries have yet recognized Kosovo’s independence. But a number of EU diplomats have increasingly critical questions for Kosovo Prime Minister Kurti. Why did he have to insist on sending democratically elected Albanian mayors to the town halls of the Serb communities in the Serb areas in the north, but not really legitimized because of the Serbian election boycott? The reason for new bloody unrest.
A few weeks later there was an attack in nearby Banjska, a village with 350 inhabitants below the Serbian Orthodox monastery of Banjska. The locally known mafia, they say behind closed doors. But: noticeably heavily armed, with armored vehicles, which the Kosovo police would also like to have, says Veton Elshani, Kosovo Albanian and currently the sole police chief in the Mitrovica district. Only because his Kosovo-Serbian partner is currently boycotting the service. Like the Serbian municipal employees in Zvečan.
There were four dead in Banjska, three of the Serb attackers, a Kosovo police officer who was one of the first on the scene. Nevertheless, the police chief appears self-confident, this time they were on the scene faster than KFOR, and as the Kosovo police they were actually responsible if it was really about organized crime. And they successfully drove away the attackers. Now everyone would have more respect for the Kosovo police. That has changed a lot, says the Kosovo police chief.
Maybe also for the KFOR troops. But for now the KFOR patrols are showing themselves more again, at least in the north of Kosovo. Their convoys roll vigilantly past the sign right at the gas station on the way to Banjska, with the community’s honorary citizens: tennis star Novak Djokovic, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Russian President Vladimir Putin – whose face has been painted red for some time.
Honorary citizens in the north of Kosovo, in the municipality of Zvečan: Djokovic, Vucic and – painted over in red – Putin.
They protect the town hall in Zvečan, within sight of the graffiti “NATO go home”, “Kosovo is Serbia” and a freshly painted mural of the Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic. They show their presence, in accordance with the UN mandate: to secure and support peace. For almost a quarter of a century.