[ rfe/rl banner ]

Kosovo Officials Say Standoff Ends After Deadly Attack, Search On For Remaining Assailants

By RFE/RL's Balkan Service September 24, 2023

Authorities in Kosovo said police had regained control of territory around a Serbian Orthodox monastery complex in the mostly Serb north of the country after a tense standoff following an overnight assault by a "heavily armed" group that led to the death of one police officer and three suspected assailants.

"We have gotten this territory under control. It was accomplished after several consecutive battles," Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla told reporters on September 24.

Prime Minister Albin Kurti earlier said that Kosovar police were in a standoff with some 30 attackers dressed in security -- or military-like -- uniforms who may have ties to the Orthodox monastery complex in the village of Banjska, where the deadly encounter began around 2:30 a.m. local time, sparking vague accusations of involvement by neighboring bitter rival Serbia.

During the standoff, Kosovar police said that three attackers had been killed and six people had been arrested, including two of the assailants and four others found to be in possession of radio communications technology and had discovered a "significant amount" of weapons, ammunition, and other equipment."

Details remained scarce and it wasn't immediately clear how the remaining suspected assailants may have escaped or where they were heading.

In a speech late on September 24, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said he was sorry that a police officer was killed, but he blamed the Kosovar leader, saying that ethnic Serbs there "did not want to suffer Kurti's terror any longer."

"I do not want to justify the murder of an [ethnic] Albanian policeman in any way, nor can I justify it. It is a reprehensible act and it is something that no one needed," the Serbian president said.

He denied that Belgrade was involved in the overnight incident and said two of those killed were from North Mitrovica, without providing their identities.

Vucic again vehemently stated that Serbia would "never" recognize the independence of Kosovo, its former province, "neither formally nor informally." He did add, however, that Belgrade was willing to talk to Pristina.

Kurti earlier told a news conference that "there are at least 30 heavily armed people, professionals, military and police, who are under the siege of our police forces and whom I invite to surrender to our security bodies."

He said Kosovar security authorities and prosecutors would scramble "to understand more about these uniforms."

Kurti showed images of vehicles reportedly being used by the perpetrators and said neither local Serbs in the area nor other civilians in Kosovo have "such vehicles."

An RFE/RL team said earlier that rounds of gunfire continued to echo near the scene in northern Kosovo where ethnic and national tensions appear to have erupted into violence again in a predominantly Serb region of a Balkan hot spot.

Serbia does not recognize the 2008 declaration of independence of its mostly ethnic Albanian former province, with many ethnic Serbs in Kosovo following suit while remaining dependent on so-called parallel structures that Pristina regards as illegal.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he "condemn[s] in the strongest possible terms the hideous attack by an armed gang against Kosovo Police officers in Banjska/Banjske" and said more innocent lives were in danger "in ongoing hostilities" around the monastery.

He said the EU's peacekeeping force, EULEX, was "on the ground" as a second security responder and was in touch with authorities and with NATO KFOR peacekeepers.

"The EU and its Member States repeatedly urge all actors to work to de-escalate the situation in north of Kosovo," Borrell said.

KFOR in a statement said it "strongly condemns" the attack against Kosovar police and that it "continues to closely monitor the situation in Banjska, and KFOR troops are present in the area, standing ready to respond if required."

"The Kosovo Police, as first responder, has primary responsibility for managing the incident on the ground," it added, while saying it is in "close and constant contact with all international stakeholders, including the EU, the Chief of Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces, and with the Institutions in Kosovo."

Earlier, Kurti said the incident was a "criminal and terrorist act."

The Kosovar Interior Ministry said authorities closed the nearby Brnjak border crossing with Serbia.

Police have closed the main road from Pristina and an RFE/RL team was prevented from approaching the scene in Banjska.

Kosovo's main hospital network said it had raised preparedness levels in at least two area facilities.

Kosovo's president, Vjosa Osmani, called it "an attack on law and order in the north of the country" and "an attack against Kosovo."

"These attacks testify once again to the destabilizing power of criminal gangs organized by Serbia, which have long since, as evidenced by attacks on KFOR members, journalists, and citizens, have been aiming to destabilize Kosovo and the region," Osmani said.

The U.S. envoy to Pristina "strongly condemned" the violence and urged that the perpetrators be brought to justice.

There was no immediate response from Belgrade to the incident or the suggestions from Pristina of indirect or indirect involvement by Serbia.

Kurti said a gunbattle had begun around 3 a.m. local time in Banjska, in the Zvecan municipality, between police and "professionals with masks and armed with heavy weapons."

Kurti blamed "organized crime with political, financial, and logistical support from official Belgrade," saying it was "attacking our state."

A Kosovar police statement later confirmed the officer's death and said the wounded person had been transferred to a hospital in Pristina with non-life-threatening injuries.

A physician at a local medical facility told RFE/RL's Balkan Service that doctors had removed grenade shrapnel from the chest and arm of the injured policemen.

Police say their officers are occasionally targeted in attacks by organized armed groups in the area.

Zvecan is one of four mostly Serb municipalities where unrest erupted in May after boycotted elections and attempts by Pristina to forcibly seat ethnic Albanian local officials.

Local Serbs sometimes block roads and carry out other acts of defiance against Kosovar authorities in the northern areas.

In a statement, the Kosovar police said three rapid-response units "encountered resistance from several different positions" while responding to the discovery around 2:30 a.m. local time of two unmarked heavy trucks that were blocking a bridge that leads to Banjska. It said they were fired on "with an arsenal of firearms, including hand grenades."

Western officials mediating talks with Serbia and Kosovo have signaled frustration since negotiations this month, which also involved Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, failed to achieve a breakthrough on normalization.

Those talks are part of a decade-long U.S. and EU diplomatic push toward formalized relations and to repair some of the wounds from bloody internecine wars in the 1990s, after the breakup of Yugoslavia.

In May and June, Kurti ignored outside warnings and tried to forcibly install four mayors in mostly Serb northern municipalities following boycotted by-elections to fill posts vacated by protesting Serbs.

The resulting tensions erupted into violence that injured dozens of NATO KFOR peacekeepers and some ethnic Serb protesters.

The U.S. ambassador to Kosovo, Jeff Hovenier, said on social media that he "strongly condemn[s] the orchestrated, violent attacks on the Kosovo Police" and stressed the Kosovo Police's "full & legitimate responsibility for enforcing the rule of law in Kosovo."

He added that "the perpetrators must & will be held accountable and brought to justice."

Kosovar authorities identified the slain police officer as Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku.

"His murder should be translated into an even greater commitment in the fight against gangs, illegal structures, crime, and terrorism, which threaten the security of citizens and the constitutional order," Kurti said.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/kosovo-police-officer-killed- serb-north-kurti/32606755.html

NEWSLETTER

Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list

Military

Kosovo Officials Say Standoff Ends After Deadly Attack, Search On For Remaining Assailants