Solana Chides Kosovar Leaders About Serb Plight

A brief stop-over in Kosovo by the EU’s foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana, this week has failed to quell fears that ethnic tensions are mounting in the territory, following the death of 16-year-old Dimitrije Popovic last Sunday.

The ethnic Serbian teenager was shot dead in the village of Gracanica, a Serb enclave near the capital Prishtina, waiting for a hamburger outside a fast-food store in the early afternoon of June 6. His killers are believed to be two young Kosovo Albanians.

Attempting to soothe Serb anger over the death, less than two months after Albanian nationalist riots forced thousands of Serbs from their homes, Solana condemned it as a “terrible crime” and criticised local leaders for failing to rebuild all the homes damaged in the March violence.

“A society in which young people can have access to guns is not healthy,” he said. “There is no place in Europe for such a society.”

Kosovo Albanian leaders, who in March were sharply criticised for reacting too slowly to anti-Serbian attacks, this time rushed to condemn the incident.

“Those who are responsible for the crime will be caught and punished,” Kosovo’s prime minister Bajram Rexhepi said.

But while UNMIK police said two Albanians had been detained in connection with the crime, it is far from certain these arrests alone will shed much light on which forces – if any – are behind this year’s violence.

Publicly, Kenneth Stica, UNMIK police press officer, said it was too early too speculate while investigations went on intensively.

After a period of relative calm since March, the bloodshed has once more spread insecurity among the Kosovo Serbs, many of whom are disturbed by rumours of a new wave of attacks to come.

Srdjan Popovic, brother of the victim, told IWPR the killing had further strained already tense relations between the small Serb minority and the Albanians.

“This is not the first and probably not the last time that young Serbians are killed,” he said. “Nor do I care anymore if those responsible are punished by the court - it won’t bring my brother back.”

Rada Trajkovic, a leading Serb politician in Kosovo, told IWPR it confirmed her belief that the UN goal of building a multi-ethnic society in Kosovo had failed.

“There’s a lot of tension within Gracanica,” Trajkovic said. “And this killing may have been something of a preparation for something even more serious.”

But whether the attack was a preparation for “something more serious” – as Trajkovic maintained - or just another random act of violence is, in fact, unclear.

In spite of media speculation about the involvement of Albanian extremist groups in the March violence, no one has resolved whether the riots were organised, or a spontaneous reaction to inflammatory media reports.

The continuing air of tension and uncertainty has overshadowed the last days in office of UNMIK’s ill-starred Finnish chief, Harri Holkeri, who returned to Prishtina on June 6 - the day of the killing - for what was supposed to be a farewell visit, after resigning his post on May 25.

“I had hoped everyone had learned the lessons of the events of 17 and 18 March, that violence will only set Kosovo back,” Holkeri told a press conference on June 7, adding, “Any provocation aimed at once more flaring up ethnic tensions will be firmly countered.”

Often criticised for playing a weak hand, Holkeri’s resignation comes, nevertheless, at an unfortunate time, effectively leaving the administration rudderless just when the territory has been more troubled than for many years.

If anyone expected the EU foreign affairs boss to release clues about Holheri’s successor, they were disappointed. With no sign that the UN has yet come up with a suitable candidate for a job that appears to be becoming progressively more difficult, Solana merely repeated that the nomination lay in the hands of the UN secretary general.

Blerim Shala, editor of the daily newspaper Zëri, said in a comment article that the delay in nominating a new UNMIK chief was slowing progress in Kosovo generally, as local institutions depended on working in partnership with international officials.

Solana’s frequent visits to the region from the end of the 1999 war have marked him out as one of the few major international politicians still actively interested in Kosovo’s progress.

Nevertheless, he did not hide his disappointment over the slow pace of reconstruction of Serb homes during a visit to Kosovo Polje/Fushe Kosove, an ethnically mixed suburb west of Prishtina, where both houses and a health centre were devastated in March.

In a stark warning to get their act together, Solana said the local authorities must meet a September deadline to rebuild the houses, or Kosovo’s institutions would face an unnamed penalty – presumably, the withdrawal of foreign aid.

Zana Limani, Arben Salihu and Muhamet Hajrullahu are trainees on the IWPR Journalism Course supported by the OSCE.