Molotov's cocktail of violence and fear

The new weekend war in Kosovo almost did not bring real victims. Fortunately, as far as is known on Tuesday, June 30, no one was killed in the conflict in the municipality of Zvečan in the north of the Republic of Kosovo the day before. And that's good news.

However, dozens of Serbs and soldiers from the KFOR contingent - read NATO forces in the province - were injured. World agencies reported that NATO soldiers were attacked and did not say much about how many Serbs were injured. Serbian media reports again that Serbs have been killed and are not concerned with soldiers from Italy, Hungary and other NATO members.

Pristina accuses Vučić and his "criminal gangs in the north that he sent to create chaos in four municipalities" in the north of Kosovo and Macedonia and prevent the formation of local self-governments after the elections organized by Aljbin Kurti, and recognized by the world.

Belgrade accuses Kurti of everything, who has long been presented as an insane person. He also demands that the special forces of the Kosovo police be removed from the north and annul the "false elections" according to which four municipalities with an absolute Serbian majority have elected (imposed) presidents.

Everything is happening while Serbia is boiling over after the May massacres at the school in Belgrade and the villages near Belgrade. In the days when the citizens gathered behind the slogan "Serbia against violence" ask the Government and the President of Serbia to make a change and to redirect the society and the country from the madness of violence of all kinds in the direction of some normality and decency. Vucic behaves in Belgrade like Kurti in Pristina when it comes to Serbs: he agrees to talk, but does not want to do anything that would bring change in Serbia. He believes that he is right and pushes the tactical secret service into the popular protest to stop it by any means. However, more and more people are on the streets. After his failed counter rally, Vučić now only has sentiments about Kosovo in his hands and there is no doubt that in the coming days he will play that card in order to put out the fire at home.

FRIDAY, BUSES AND SHOCK BOMB

Several thousand Serbs from the north of Kosovo dawned on May 26 in front of the Palace of Serbia building in New Belgrade. They came to support Vučić, who scheduled a gathering of his supporters on the plateau in front of the Serbian Parliament in the center of Belgrade for that day at 19 p.m. At the same time, in four municipalities in the north of the province, Kurti's government started its action of "introducing" newly elected mayors/municipal presidents into local self-government institutions.

While part of the Serbian population from Zvečan, Zubina Potok, Leposavić and Mitrovica was walking around New Belgrade and explaining to journalists where they were from in the buses of Albanian carriers, the rest of the population gathered around the municipal buildings in order to prevent the removal of the Serbian flag and the installation of the flag of independent Kosovo. In general, some went to defend Vučić, and others defended their right to self-government, which they renounced earlier last year when the same Vučić encouraged them to leave the institutions in the north of the province.

In the afternoon, at the time of the beginning of the gathering of progressive supporters on the plateau in the center of Belgrade, news arrived about conflicts in the municipality of Zvečan. Marko Jakšić, a local activist and former lawyer in the court in Mitrovica, spoke to the TV N1 program: he described how the special police of Kosovo attacked citizens who opposed the introduction of the new municipal president into the building and the installation of the Kosovo flag. The first videos from the field taken by local media also appeared - they showed the clash of citizens with heavily armed special forces, the smoke of tear gas and the explosion of stun bombs. The activist from Mitrovica, Aleksandar Arsenijević, was beaten in those riots, which he spoke about to TV stations that afternoon, calling on representatives of the international community to intervene.

The reaction came quickly: first from the US embassy in Pristina, and then from Washington. They called on Pristina to de-escalate, stop the use of force and to understand that elected municipal presidents have only a technical role. Then came the news that the Serbs who came from the north of Kosovo to Belgrade asked to be returned immediately, but that did not happen immediately. If their neighbors were beaten and swallowed tear gas, they were soaked to the skin while waiting for the address of the man who brought them to Belgrade. Vučić did not tell them anything in particular except that he would react immediately afterwards. The rain, bad news from Kosovo and a small number of people, small compared to what he expected, increased his pressure and he will only meet with the state and military leaders in the morning regarding the situation in Kosovo.

WEEKEND ECHOES AND REACTIONS

The "Patriotic Opposition" partly took advantage of the situation and explained everything with secret agreements between Vučić and Kurti: allegedly, not only did they have an agreement, but Vučić also rented buses from Kurti for his needs and withdrew the population to make it easier for his partner to occupy institutions in the north of the province.

Official Belgrade soon raised the "combat readiness" of the army on the administrative line, and Vučić repeated what he always says: Serbia will not allow another "Bljesak" and "Storm". Nevertheless, despite the "dramatic situation", he routinely held his party congress at which he appointed Miloš Vučević as the president of the Serbian Progressive Party, and the latter quickly announced that it would immediately merge into Vučić's popular movement, which was announced for Vidovdan this year. year.

Viola von Kramon, a German MP and rapporteur of the EU Parliament for Kosovo, spoke from the bridge over the Ibar. She said that passions must be calmed down, and Pristina must withdraw special forces from municipalities in the north of Kosovo. That is why, in the days after that, part of the Kosovo public will be presented as Vučić's mercenary.

The Serbian List asked the Government of Serbia and Vučić to end Belgrade's further participation in the dialogue with Pristina until the mayors from the Albanian parties leave the municipal administration buildings in the north of Kosovo and until the special units withdraw from the area. The newly elected president of SNS and Minister of Defense Miloš Vučević said that he understands the request of the Serbian List, but that it is still necessary to discuss that proposal.

That proposal of the Serbian List will become Belgrade's position, once again, after what will happen on Monday, May 29 in Zvečan.

MONDAY AND FORENOWN OF THE CIVIL WAR

The beginning of the week almost brought the beginning of a new war in Kosovo. Tensions came to a head. When the Serbs announced that children will not go to schools and kindergartens, and that life will stop in that part of Kosovo if Pristina does not come to its senses and withdraw its special forces, KFOR units arrived in the north of Kosovo to prevent a conflict between citizens and the Kosovo police. .

No diplomatic initiative could resolve the day-long tension. That is why the Serbs in Zvečan gathered around the combat vehicles of the Kosovo Police, preventing their movement and crew changes. And since the request of the Serbs to withdraw the special forces was not heeded, everything that was seen later will be the subject of long-term analysis and commentary.

Around four in the afternoon, news arrived in Belgrade that bursts of gunshots and gunshots could be heard in Zvečan and that helicopters would fly over the area. A little later, they started talking about the number of injured NATO soldiers (first five, and later 30), and then the number of Serbs who reported to the health center in Mitrovica. There were more than 50 of them. No one was hurt in the clashes, and both sides claim that they only responded to violence from the other side.

Videos and testimonies show that there was shooting, tear gas and stun grenades were thrown, there were wounded, many were seriously injured. From the "Serbian side", one of the participants stood out, beating everything in front of him with a baton, and throwing so-called Greek Molotov cocktails (bottles filled with gasoline and oil that are hidden by cannon fire).

Thus, the local Serbian population clashed with those who have been protecting them for more than two decades, and the news spread quickly. Images and stories of members of the attacked "peacekeeping forces" have gone out into the world, some scenes look like they are from a war zone, information has been conveyed that some TV crews were also injured and that their vehicles were set on fire.

Far from Kosovo, a group led by a professor from the Department of History, Miloš Ković, gathered in Belgrade and blocked Gazela. They were joined by other "right-wing" groups, who then announced a protest in front of the German embassy on Tuesday evening. The explanation for going "to the Germans" is that they imposed an unacceptable ultimatum (German-French agreement). A terrible message was heard from that meeting: "If there is no peace for the Serbs in Kosovo, there will be no peace for the Serbs in Belgrade either."

In the evening, Vučić addressed the people again, presenting his version of events and urging people not to clash with NATO soldiers. His interpretation was expected: everything that is happening is the result of Kurti's madness and the passivity of international mediators.



THE WEEK OF OUR DISSATISFACTION

The next morning, Vučić met with those international representatives and requested protection for the Serbs, the withdrawal of special forces and the annulment of the recent elections - there is no continuation of the dialogue until these conditions are met. International representatives are not happy about what Kurti is doing. Even Carl Bildt, the former high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, wrote that Prishtina was responsible for the conflicts. However, no one from the international community is doing anything about it.

Kurti showed great determination to do as he planned, he repeats that all the incidents come from Serbia because Vučić is sending organized criminal groups to the North in order not to destabilize that area.

On Monday, young men appeared in the crowd from the Serbian side who look so much like the thugs led by Novak Nedic, the Secretary General of the Government, in last week's video. What is their role and task in the unrest in Kosovo remains to be determined. Whether they are part of the Serbian or some other secret service, hired to produce violence, may be found out one day.

A month after the massacre in Belgrade and the villages around Belgrade, Serbia is far from any peace and stability, the mantra that Vučić has been sowing for the last year and a half. The crisis in Kosovo, the crisis in relations with the West, the crisis caused by the tragedies seems to be crushing the current government, which is trying to somehow connect these three fields and ensure a safe exit for Vučić and his regime.

Nothing says that the way of managing those crises will change, but, at least in the case of Kosovo, things are going where Pristina wants. If Belgrade talked weeks ago about the Association of Serbian Municipalities as a condition for further dialogue, now it no longer seems important. Faced with political and police violence from Pristina, Serbs are fighting for their lives and for the possibility of remaining in Kosovo at all. Right now the ladder is down to that level – just leave them alone. Eleven years of Vučić's and Dacić's Kosovo policy brought Kosovo closer to the goal: establishment of control over the entire territory, expulsion of Serbian institutions, offer to Serbs to be citizens of Kosovo.

Vučić, as an old radical, is left with only violence as an "institution" and Kurti, who is testing the patience of those who sponsored Kosovo's independence to the limit. Radicals are inclined to that method, but in the previous thirty years it was mainly the rhetoric of beating and raising the tone in public speaking. And that neither defended the Serbs in Croatia nor saved Kosovo. It is best seen now.