North Kosovo crisis

The clashes occurred due to a long stand-off over cross-border trade. Since the declaration of independence, Kosovo has been unable to export anything to or via territories directly controlled by Serbia's government.[2] There was disruption to cross-border trade[6] following Serbia's ban on Kosovar imports,[9] even though many jobs on both sides depended on international trade[10] Serbia also stationed troops in the northern region to enforce a boycott of goods from Kosovo proper.[11]

Although KFOR had made implementation of the "vague ultimatums" to remove the barricades, Kosovar Serbs had in the past used mountainous tracts to cross between northern Kosovo and Serbia proper. At the same as the bridge dividing Mitrovica was closed from transport to the south, the daily train to southern Serbia was packed. The EU also demanded that Serbia dismantle "the parallel structures" of government in Northern Kosovo. Serbia's Secretary of State for Kosovo, Oliver Ivanović said: "We don't see these as 'parallel structures', we see these as the only structures, because we do not recognise the independence of Kosovo." He also said that a partition of Kosovo is out of the question, even though Serbian President Boris Tadić said he was open to the possibility. The Serbs of North Kosovo do not acknowledge or cooperate with the government of Kosovo.[10]

Prior to the Kosovo Police's attempt to take over the administrative border crossings on 26 July, they were controlled by EULEX and Serb members of the Kosovo Police.[7]

On 26 July 2011, during the operation to take control of the administrative border posts, Enver Zymberi, a member of the Kosovo Police's Special Intervention Unit, was killed by a Serb sniper. Twenty five more policemen were wounded, with at least one being treated in hospital for severe wounds.[2] The KFOR Mi-17 helicopter that had moved the 16 Kosovo special police personnel belonged to the Croatian Army.[14] Later that day the same helicopter had been fired at.[14] An hour later 14 new Kosovo police officers and three customs officers were located in Brnjak.[15] Though the Kosovo police later withdrew and there was a lull in tensions, some Serbian protesters returned in the evening and attacked the post.[16]

Jarinje administrative border crossing, burnt down on 27 July 2011

Clashes continued on 27 July after armed Kosovar police took over two administrative border posts to enforce the writ of the central government in Pristina; ethnic Serbs burned down the administrative border post at Jarinje. The mob, which reportedly included "dozens of masked men, armed with crowbars, clubs, axes, Molotov cocktails and handheld flares,"[17] as well as rocks and other debris,[18] were said to have attacked the NATO troops who were a part of KFOR operations. Reports also suggested the troops may have been fired upon.[17] This was the same administrative border post that had been burned down in 2008 after Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence.[11] Following the intervention of KFOR's NATO troops, a NATO operations officer, Lieutenant Colonel Ralf Adametz, said that "the situation is now under control, but tense."[18]

There was a thaw in tensions on 28 July, after all Kosovar units withdrew from North Kosovo, leaving KFOR's NATO troops in charge of maintaining peace in the region. In return, the Serbs removed most of the roadblocks they had created.[19] KFOR took full control of the two crossings and General Erhard Bühler declared the area around the two crossings to be military areas, therefore giving shoot-at-sight orders to his soldiers for anyone crossing the area.[20]

A Serbian man was later beaten up in Štrpce (an ethnically mixed area), allegedly due to being Serb; however this has not been confirmed.[21]

As of 29 July, NATO units remained in control of the two administrative border posts. However, they were prevented from returning to their bases by some of the roadblocks set up by hundreds of Serb protesters. The column of American and Slovenian[22] 30 armoured vehicles then withdrew from the barricade, even though they were given permission to move against the protesters using force, if necessary. The decision was made to avoid further bloodshed.[23]

Kosovo Police and Italian Carabinieri from KFOR-MSU near the Ibar River Bridge on the Kosovo Albanian side.

On 31 July, the Serbs continued to man their roadblocks and KFOR soldiers remained isolated at the administrative border crossings they were manning. The Kosovars then organised burnings of Serbian products and General Buhler sent an ultimatum to the Serbs blocking the road.

On 1 August, NATO said that Swiss Army sappers, supported by other KFOR troops[24] had cleared three of the roadblocks but claimed that there were still at least five blocks remaining on the two roads leading to Serbia.[25] The Kosovar Interior Minister Bajram Rexhepi ordered Serbia's Minister for Kosovo and Metohija Goran Bogdanović and the head of the Serbian negotiation team, Borislav Stefanović, to be deported after allegedly having entered Kosovo illegally.[26] The next day, however, some roadblocks remained in place with all major roads being completely sealed off. Agence France Press reported of a severe food crisis and a shortage of medicines in the North.[27] KFOR then requested a battalion of 550 German soldiers, assisted by 150 Austrian troops, to reinforce its presence in the north in order to deal with a possible future unrest.[28]

On 3 August, Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi reiterated a refusal to back down on his trade ban as some of the roadblocks remained in place across the North. A deal was later struck to allow KFOR to control the administrative border crossings in return for the dismantling of the blockades.[9] KFOR helicopters were then used to bypass the roadblocks and establish a skeletal EULEX and Kosovo Police and Customs presence at the administrative border crossings.[29]

Peaceful protests in Zvečan, 30 July.

On 16 September tensions reignited after the Kosovo Police, EULEX and NATO units airlifted troops from Kosovo-proper to the two administrative border posts in an effort to re-establish control over the North. Local Serbs then blocked all the major routes leading to the two administrative border crossings, including two major bridges connecting the divided town of Mitrovica and vowed to stay there "until the bitter end," causing all the troops at the administrative border crossings to be virtually isolated from the rest of Kosovo. The European media reported that youths from both the Albanian and Serbian communities pelted each other with rocks near one of the blocked bridges which then led to a KFOR intervention to stop the violence.[30]

The previous night passed without incident in most of northern Kosovo, except for a minor incident near Zupče and Cabra with shots being fired in the area, because of an increased police presence in Mitrovica. After the shooting, Kosovar Serbs set-up another barricade next to an already existing encampment in Zupče, on the road from Mitrovica to Ribarici; gravel was unloaded across both lanes of the road leading to the southern part of Mitrovica. The next day there were similar clashes at the roadblocks after they were reinforced with more Serb protesters and Kosovo Police officers.[31][32]

On 19 September, KFOR helicopters dropped hundreds of leaflets urging the Serbs to end their roadblocks. The five sentence leaflet, written in Serbian Cyrillic, warned citizens that blocking roads was against the law and therefore such a move "is not in line with peaceful demonstrations. Blocking roads represent[s a] danger for all in extraordinary situations, because there is no possibility to deliver help to those in need." Confirming the air drop, KFOR spokesman Ralph Adametz said that the leaflets were dropped at the barricades close to administrative border crossings 1 and 31. He described the overall situation as unchangeable, but underlined the need for opening blocked roads. KFOR said the mission "recognises the right for peaceful protests and demonstrations" but "blocking roads doesn't represent any accepted way for expressing your concerns." The air drop began hours after the head EULEX, Xavier de Marnhac, visited the two disputed crossings. According to him, both crossings were technically ready to be fully operational but the barricades that had been put up on nearby roads prevented the gates from being utilised.[33]

On 27 September, four soldiers were injured by pipe bomb explosions. NATO spokesman Kai Gudenoge then said that German[34] KFOR troops were forced to fire rubber bullets and tear gas in self-defence against Kosovan Serb protesters after being attacked at administrative border crossing Gate 1 following an attempt by Kosovar Serbs to erect a new roadblock after KFOR blocked an alternative road to Serbia proper. Five of the protesters were arrested. Hospital officials in northern Kosovo said seven Serb protesters were also wounded from gunfire which erupted in the afternoon in Jarinje. Head of Mitrovica hospital Milan Jakovljevic said the wounded had been brought to his hospital for medical treatment. "We can't say if anyone has life threatening injures at this moment, since we are assessing their current extent of the injuries." The Kosovar government in Pristina said that it was working with both KFOR and EULEX in the quest to open the barricaded roads in the north. The local media in Mitrovica reported that two EULEX vehicles are set on fire.[35][36]

Kosovo's ethnic divisions

KFOR's commander said that his troops would forcibly remove roadblocks on 17 October if Kosovar Serbs did not voluntarily do so.[37] KFOR's General Erhard Drews said that "KFOR is ready and resolved to take action on behalf of freedom of movement."[29] However, Kosovar Serbs said that they would take "defensive action" to counter KFOR's attempts at forcibly removing the roadblocks.[38] Though the deadline passed to remove the roadblocks, KFOR troops who were sent to remove them left without incident in an effort to give the local Serbs more time to do so themselves. A KFOR commander said that "we've been given orders to go back, as we cannot go through barricades." Drews said that with the defiance of the ultimatum as "the north did not comply with the request to remove the roadblocks." In response, Kosovar Serb politicians said that any KFOR operations would be halted till 19 October for community leaders to discuss a possible compromise solution. Slavisa Ristic, mayor of Zubin Potok, said that "there will be no KFOR actions today or tomorrow until representatives of (Serb) municipalities agree on how to end the impasse."[9][29]

On the morning of 20 October, KFOR and EULEX clashed with Kosovar Serbs near Brnjak,[39] resulting in the injuries of 22 Serbs, including women and three serious injuries, as well as eight KFOR injuries. KFOR then entered North Kosovo after failing to reach an agreement of free movement inside four of the Serb municipalities of Kosovo.[40][41] On the same day in Dobruša, near Peć, a Serb was killed and two other Serbs were injured by an Albanian perpetrator, who later gave himself up to the Kosovo police.[42] Another peaceful protest was held in Gračanica by a few thousand Serbs.[43] At this time, the majority of Serbs south of Ibar, beyond North Kosovo, still depend on Serbia, while only 5% are talking with Kosovan Albanian institutions.[43]

On 24 October an Albanian from southern Mitrovica took a bulldozer and tried to destroy the barricade at the bridge, but was stopped by the Kosovo police.[44]

On the night of 23 November, KFOR tried to remove a barricade in the village of Dudin Krš.[45] They withdrew about an hour and a half after midnight.[45] Afterwards, an explosion went off in 01:00 CET in northern Mitrovica near the Faculty of Economy, which damaged two cars.[45] A total of 21 KFOR/NATO soldiers were lightly injured, one of them seriously, in the night between 23 and 24 November.[46]

On 20 December, Zvonko and Zarko Veselinović, who had allegedly organised the 27 and 28 September barricades at Jarinje and Jagnjenica, respectively, were arrested on Kopaonik by Serbian police, which caused controversy in the Serbian public.[47]

In February 2012, four northern Serb-dominated regions held a non-binding referendum to ask if the institutions of Kosovo should be recognised. The result saw 99.74% of voters reject the Republic of Kosovo.[48]

Shortly after Serbia's new President Tomislav Nikolić took office,[49] on 1 June, in Zvečan KFOR German troops[50] blocked a bridge with armoured vehicles and barbed wire in an attempt to remove a roadblock, causing a confrontation with several hundred protesters who threw rocks at them.[51] The soldiers were then reported to have fired back with rubber bullets and tear gas, which led to a further conflagration with Kosovan Serbs using small arms. Four Serbs and two German soldiers were wounded.[52] Spokesman Colonel Uwe Nowitzky reported that there was sniper fire aimed at German forces, and that the soldiers retaliated by firing live ammunition on at least one "sniper pit" which was consequently "deactivated".[53] Nowitzky added: "KFOR condemns this act of violence. KFOR will not allow the situation to escalate and will use a proportional level of force necessary to maintain a safe and secure environment." KFOR also said it would continue to seek the removal of roadblocks, while Kosovan Serbs vowed that those affiliated with the government in Pristina would not be able to impose their writ on the north. Zvečan's mayor Dragiša Milović said that KFOR refused to allow Serb medical personnel to assist the wounded Serbs. "A commander told me they have the authority to use deadly force on anyone who throws a stone or uses a weapon."[54]