If anyone has indulged in illusions about the likelihood of Kosovo’s bloodless separation from Serbia, then they must be disenchanted by now. This new country has fallen on unstable times.  Unfortunately, the Ukrainian military contingent to the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) learned that first hand, having suffered its first losses on 17 March: Riot Police Lieutenant Ihor Kinal was mortally hurt in Kosovska Mitrovica. Twenty other officers of the Ukrainian unit of the UNMIK police force were wounded, two of them – severely.

The tragedy happened early Monday morning when Ukrainian, Polish, French and Romanian police units, fulfilling UNMIK Chief Joachim Rucker’s orders, cleared a courthouse in the northern (Serbian) part of Kosovska Mitrovica seized three days earlier by Serbs – former court employees. The latter protested against a unilateral declaration of Kosovo’s independence and demanded their jobs be reinstated. The police arrested the Serbs who had previously occupied the courthouse and found a lot of women among them.  It was the detainment of the 53 protesters that sparked the Serbs’ attack on the UNMIK police unit.

Ninety minutes after the operation began, stones, grenades and bottles with Molotov cocktails started flying toward the servicemen. Serbs were firing at the police from behind women’s backs. UNMIK units could only retaliate with smoke pots as UN instructions prohibit UN police forces to use any other means (including rubber bullets) against demonstrators. It was only with the help of the KFOR military, whose rules are less restrictive, that police finally managed to disperse the fifteen-hundred-strong crowd.

The violent assault of arms lasted for four hours. As a result, about a hundred peacekeepers were injured, dozens of Serbs were wounded, and a few UN cars were burned. A group of arrested Serbs escaped. Some time later, authorities released the other detainees sent to Pristina. It stabilized the situation in the city. The KFOR military the patrolled streets in Kosovska Mitrovica for a couple of days, but on Wednesday UNMIK police returned to perform their duties.  

Today, Kyiv requested that the UN mission carry out a thorough investigation of the incident as there are a lot of questions about the preparation for the courthouse onslaught in Kosovska Mitrovica and subsequent events. In particular, the operation was ill-timed. March 17 is a tragic date in the history of Kosovo’s Serbian community: on that day in 2004, Albanians carried out Serb pogroms, forcing thousands of people from their homes. Their houses were devastated and churches destroyed. Serbs were expected to organize a rally of some sort, and the police operation that day could not but provoke them, upset as they were over the unilateral declaration on provincial independence by Albanians.

Of course, UN mission representatives knew about it. Nevertheless, mission commanders decided to go ahead with the operation on March17. They argue that, according to their intelligence, the Serbs were planning to seize the local police station on that very day. Those plans had to be foiled before the situation in the city could be aggravated further. However, Ukrainian authorities refuse to accept these arguments, claiming the chief officer of the Kosovska Mitrovica police station (who is Ukrainian) had no information about the possible assault. Ukrainian Interior Minister Yuriy Lutsenko, sharing his personal opinion of the incident at a press-conference, dismissed the UNMIK explanations as a lie and whitewashing.  

Ukrainian authorities presume that the police units were not prepared for the operations where Serbs show aggression toward peacekeepers, while the UN mission was not properly prepared for intervention: at the planning stage, KFOR units were not considered as a possible back-up for the UNMIK police force. Yuriy Lutsenko believes UN mission commanders “acted in the off-chance”. Therefore, Ukrainian authorities insist that the people responsible for the poor planning of the operation should be brought to task. “We should raise the issue of responsibility for preparation and management of the mission that ended in the wounding of about 80 people,” said Anatoliy Gritsenko, Chair of the Verkhovna Rada Committee for National Security and Defense and ex-Minister of Defense.   

Furthermore, Ukrainian experts think UN instructions on the use of arms for self-defence in emergencies should be revised. Only four hours after the rioters started throwing stones and “Molotov cocktail” bottles at the police and every second officer had been wounded, did the UN mission allow them to use personal weapons.

Meanwhile, Belgrade and Moscow blame the UN mission police for the application of disproportionate force and claim the conflict could have been settled amicably through negotiations. Thus, the Serbian Minister to Kosovo Slobodan Samarjic said he managed to persuade people in the courthouse to vacate it with the guarantee of no use  of force against them. UN representatives denied that such an agreement was reached and that the police officers mistreated arrested Serbs (former law enforcement employees themselves).  

According to our sources in Belgrade, a lot of agreed with Serbian complaints that the police behave inhumanely:  they allegedly forced the arrested men onto their knees, tied their hands with plastic cords, and denied them medicine. Commenting on these allegations against Ukrainian peacekeepers, Yuriy Lutsenko said: “Our officers strictly follow instructions for UN peacekeeping units that regulate, in every detail, police actions in the course of special operations. Frankly speaking, I would not trust this information as I saw Serbian newspaper articles saying that UNMIK police used “tanks against unarmed Serbs”. Unfortunately, it is all propaganda in a country at war over its territory”.

The incident in Kosovska Mitrovica posed a tough question to Kyiv: how to provide maximum security to Ukrainian peacekeeping units in Kosovo when the situation is being aggravated by the day. A number of triggers could destabilize it even further. First, an election campaign is underway in Serbia: general elections are to be held on May11. Three opposing camps –uncompromising Voislav Koshtunitsa, radical Tomislav Nikolic and Boris Tadic, open to dialogue with the West – will be playing the Kosovo card in their contest, which does not add stability to the province.

Second, numerous Serbian politicians are interested in sustaining tension in Kosovo. This would keep the international community’s attention focused on the province. Given that Kosovo Albanians are just starting to form their government and promote their state on the international arena, any conflict will be presented as demonstrating their inability to control the situation. Under the circumstances, Serbs would benefit if a state of emergency were declared in Kosovo.

Even Serbian analysts doubt the spontaneity of the protests in Kosovska Mitrovica, admitting that the action was thoroughly planned. Russia – a supporter of Serbia’s policy toward Kosovo – also seems to have a stake in permanent instability in the region, using Kosovo to bring pressure to bear on the United States and the European Union. 

Finally, one should keep in mind that Kosovo leaders, including the former guerrilla Khashim Tachi, want Serbians to leave Kosovo. One should not be fooled by their declarations about establishing a multi-ethnic state. The international community should work hard to prevent bloodshed between Serbians and Albanians and guarantee security to peacekeeping contingents.  

What should Kyiv do now that one Ukrainian peacekeeper is dead and twenty others have been wounded? Should it give up or carry on its peacekeeping mission in the unsafe region? The opposition calls for withdrawing the Ukrainian contingent from Kosovo. For instance, the Party of Regions registered a relevant draft resolution in the Verkhovna Rada and demanded the discharge of Minister Lutsenko for “misleading the public and Parliament about the situation with Ukrainian peacekeepers in Kosovo”.  MPs representing this party in the Rada even blocked the parliamentary rostrum on Friday, threatening to instigate yet another political crisis in the country and turning the Ukrainian Police officer’s death in action into a means of gaining new concessions from the coalition and government.   

If the Ukrainian contingent is to stay in Kosovo, what steps should be made to ensure its safety within both UNMIK and KFOR? Should Ukrainian soldiers and officers in the UNMIK police force be granted combatant status if there is no combat action in the province? The UN peacekeeping mandate in the region does not empower them to engage in battle.   

All these questions were raised at the NSDC session on Friday. It was the first time that top officials of the country met specifically to discuss the situation in Kosovo and our peacekeepers’ security. A few months ago, when the Kosovo independence became obvious, some observers, experts and politicians underscored the need to revise engagement rules for the Ukrainian contingent. However, the Cabinet and Presidential Office were more absorbed with battles on internal political fronts than with developing a strategy regarding the Kosovo conflict.   

When this article went to press, the NSDC’s decision had not been announced. Yet we venture a guess that Kyiv will not withdraw its contingent despite the loss of the officer, for a number of reasons. Withdrawal could impair Ukraine’s image as a reliable partner in peacekeeping operations and create an impression that Ukraine can be forced to give in to extremists. It could increase destabilization in the province and deprive Ukrainian police units of invaluable experience of operating under extreme conditions.

The Interior Ministry of Ukraine participates in the peacekeeping operations in Kosovo pursuant to Resolution #1244 of the UN Security Council of 1999. Since the mission was launched in 2000, Ukrainian officers and GIs have been sent to serve in Kosovo on a competitive basis. They volunteer to undertake the mission and go through a tough competition, with four to six candidates for every vacancy. As of March 18, there were 187 GIs and officers of the Interior Ministry in Kosovo under the UN mandate. So far, not a single Ukrainian serviceman of the UNMIK has stated their desire to be sent back home. The future of the Ukrainian police force within the UNMIK depends on whether the EU mission will replace the UN personnel after the change in Kosovo’s status. If that is the case and responsibility for security in the province is handed over to the European Union, the Ukrainian contingent serving in Kosovo under the UN mandate can either come back to Ukraine or might placed under the EU authority. Kyiv should choose the best option today, particularly in view of the deteriorating situation in Kosovo.