Srpska Lista asked KFOR, stationed in front of the municipal building in Zvecan since Monday, to deploy additional soldiers at the intersections in Zvecan so that there is no contact between the protesting citizens and the Kosovo special police, who, as they claim, enter this area.
They decided to do this after an incident occurred yesterday when citizens broke the window on a police vehicle, which, as the Srpska Lista chief claims, was full of policemen and moving through the crowd of citizens with the intention of „provoking.” He also claimed that policemen are pulling over vehicles and arresting anyone found with a Serbian flag or symbols on a T-shirt that „they don’t like“.
Goran Rakic and Igor Simic conveyed this to the head of the US contingent of KFOR yesterday, with whom they have been negotiating since Monday – the same day that the Serbs clashed with KFOR. Thirty soldiers were injured, three of them seriously. On the Serbian side, the hospital announced that over 50 people were injured and one was seriously wounded.
Although he offered for Rakic and Simic to cross over to the zone they guard, now much wider than on Monday, the duo decided to have the conversation through barbed wire, which KFOR had previously installed, and in front of dozens of cameras.
„Ok,“ said the American soldier.
After listening to what Rakic had to say, the KFOR soldier replied: “I would absolutely like to do that. The problem, though, on Monday, when I had forces of KFOR separated by the crowd, I asked you several times, if you could move the crowd so that I could have communication, freedom of movement, and ensure that I could have a safe and secure environment between the KFOR forces that were separated from each other, so that I could make sure I could freely walk between all of them. I’m sure you remember that we talked about it several times and we couldn’t reach an agreement and I was never able to freely walk to all my KFOR forces, without walking through a crowd, the same crowd that defaced my vehicle, and the same crowd that we couldn’t after eight hours of professional and respectful discussion come together to make an agreement to keep the peace.
So I would absolutely love to have KFOR in these locations, but knowing what I know now from Monday, I’m very concerned about creating the same situation that we had on Monday, and I can’t have that. I’m here to keep safety and security for everyone, including KFOR.“
Rakic disagreed with the claim that the members of KFOR were not free, noting that the citizens protested the fact that police units were moving. He once again asked for KFOR’s help.
The KFOR member said that he needs a commitment that now, when the crowd is twice as large when compared to Monday, the same thing that happened on that day won’t be repeated. He reiterated that he was unable to reach his soldiers, except by moving through the crowd.
„And when I got to my vehicle, it was damaged and defaced, with intentionally disrespectful symbols. So, if you’re saying that you can replicate that for me again, I don’t want that,“ the KFOR soldier said.
„Because if I ask you for permission, to coordinate with you, and move to my soldiers that are at the locations that you request, and I arrive there, and their vehicles are defaced, disrespected their flags, or there are any problems such as foul language spoken to my soldiers, just as I experienced walking to my vehicle, that was even closer than what you are asking me to put soldiers,“ he said, noting that he does not want a repeat of Monday events.
Below we publish the rest of the conversation between SL and the KFOR soldier:
KFOR: “I need your promise that those soldiers won’t be bothered, threatened, harassed, nothing thrown at them, and they have absolutely no problem.”
Rakić: “Yeah, we can guarantee that.“
KFOR: “The problem I’m also having is, from our experience on Monday, and my experience being here in Kosovo over the last several months, the men running around wearing masks – they need to go and not come back.”
Rakić: “There are no such men.”
KFOR: “Not only here in Zvecan, but in all locations where KFOR attempts to keep everyone safe. I saw with my own eyes those same men wearing masks injuring my soldiers.”
Rakić: “Here?”
KFOR: “Yes.”
Simić: „If we want to have peace, one more time, we have a situation where provocations are not coming from our side and at this moment, we are telling you what happened thirty minutes ago. Some third party is coming and provoking a reaction. It is our obligation to ask for your support. It is your obligation to protect the peace, so we must find a way to protect it. Last night, Mr. Rakic and I were here. We also offer your units to stay here with you all night if that is necessary, to prevent it. We can’t go back to Monday, because we also have suffered some things that we didn’t deserve, with people – with or without masks. If we want to protect peace, we need to stop those people who are now torturing people in different places in this municipality, and these people are wearing blue uniforms and they are from the Kosovo Police. They can provoke this crowd to react. You say double the size of the crowd, but you can see that we have women, doctors and until now, we have not had a single incident. And now you see that there are no people in this crowd wearing masks or anything. So we can’t go back and think only about that day. Because you have some complaints, we will have it, as well. We show our good will to cooperate and solve this issue.“
KFOR: “I’m not asking us to go back in time. Because I know we can’t do that. We all make mistakes that we wish we could take back. And like you and I talked on Monday evening, we both wished we could take back what happened in the afternoon. But we can do with the past is use that to make smart decisions in the future and in the present, and that’s why I’m talking about Monday now. Because Monday of last week, this week, can repeat itself again. And I will not forget Monday for the sole reason to make sure it never happens again. What we learned from Monday is that without close cooperation, coordinating and coming to safe agreements – no one wins.
Rakić: “I agree with that. We must not forget what happened, because if we don’t learn from our mistakes, mistakes will be repeated as you said and I completely agree with you, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t move on and we shouldn’t have cooperation. We must have cooperation and we must have trust between each other.“
KFOR: “The other thing that I need is this third party that was mentioned, they cannot freely move within the crowd. If there is truly a third, separate, party, with completely different interests with everybody else, with you. I would expect the crowd to rebuke and push them away and not accept them in that group.”
Simić: “The third side, we are thinking about Kosovo police, because they are entering in the crowd.”
KFOR: “The third party that I’m talking about is the men wearing masks, which I was told because they fear prosecution or fear being sought after by the police. Based on what I saw with my own eyes, I know why that is. Because many of them, I saw, myself, injure KFOR soldiers, with shock bombs that were attached to glass bottles, with small BB pellets, and either alcohol or some type of fuel to cause a fire. Twenty-five KFOR soldiers were injured. Some of them have gunshot wounds. Let me say that again, some KFOR soldiers were injured by gunfire. With my own eyes, I found a bullet not far from where we talked on Monday night. A bullet that had been fired from a gun, has the markings, the spiral markings from a barrel that only comes when fired. That bullet can only be fired by guns that no one in NATO has, here in KFOR. The guns that fired that bullet were not here on Monday, but that bullet somehow was. I have KFOR soldiers that are pulling bullets out of their equipment. That is absolutely unacceptable.”
Rakić: „The special units of the police were the only ones who had weapons that day. If you have any information, if you personally see someone with a weapon, please share that with me. We said we wouldn’t talk about Monday. We will not forget that day, and we came with the question of whether we can cooperate, to work together to keep the peace, and I came to ask you that, if you have the opportunity, to place your units on the main road and prevent the special units of the police from provoking people. I’m not demanding, I’m begging you, if you have the opportunities – to do that.“
KFOR: “On Monday we talked about commitment through action and not just words. Through my words, I’m agreeing that I will look at the possibility of placing KFOR soldiers there. In the locations that you requested. It will take time to make sure that I have the same level of protection for everyone in the community, to make sure that I can meet my mission of keeping everyone safe. I cannot give you the time when I will be able to do that.
Once I have that information, I will come back and talk to you, and confirm or deny whether I’m able to fulfill that request. But I will give it a very serious consideration.”
Rakić: „Thank you in advance and I will be there, if there is a need we will be with you 24 hours.“
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