War of North and South

Special for VREME from Kosovska Mitrovica

It looked like a well run, virtually routine operation which the KFOR has conducted in Kosovo countless times already.  On February 20, as soon as the police hour was up, several minutes after six a.m., American, German and French soldiers blocked the professional secondary school building, as well as the building of the Mining and Metallurgy Faculty.  The putting of barbed wire in place and the presence of armored vehicles were sure signs that something was up.  Neighboring buildings were also siphoned off.  That "something" was an extensive search in which international soldiers went after weapons and ammunition.  The few early risers were surprised why soldiers were stopping them and frisking them extensively.  Car traffic was totally blocked.  Serbs, who are already used to French soldiers, were surprised by the large numbers of American soldiers in Kosovska Mitrovica.  At the orders of the KFOR Commander, General Claus Reinhardt, Americans arrived to this city one day earlier as reinforcements.  While the American soldiers were conducting the search, French, German and Italian soldiers were securing the neighborhood.  Right up to nine o'clock that morning they searched classrooms, offices and apartments without any interference.  The most frequent commentary which could be heard from the ever growing number of people who gathered outside was: "They are getting ready to let Albanians into our part of the city!  Wherever there are Americans, there isn't a single Serbs.  This is not their zone of responsibility."  Already by ten a.m., the crowd became more unruly and individuals began throwing snowballs at the parked armored vehicles from the American contingent.  Soon after stones, swearing and loud criticisms followed.  The anxious soldiers quickly jumped into their vehicles and headed for the southern, Albanian part of the city.  Reporters were on the scene so that television footage was aired on virtually every important TV station in the world.

SEARCH RESULTS: In this way two important operations began: the NATO operation and the Serb operation.  While Americans and their vehicles were being showered with stones, individuals hollered "France, France..." trying not to injure any of the French soldiers or the Italian carabiniere.  Admittedly, they did not show any fear and some of them stood with their rifles lazily strapped around their shoulders among nervous and angry Serbs.  At one point a group targeted a foreign cameraman who managed to shoot enough footage for the evening news.  The KFOR soldiers jumped in to the rescue.  When the last American and German vehicles left toward the bridge which connects the divided city, new comments followed: "we showed them!" and "they have no business being here!"  Serbs kept flashing thumbs up as signs of victory.  However, the French soldiers continued the search for weapons right on through the afternoon hours.  Only few people noticed when weapons and ammunition were taken out of the professional secondary school.  That same evening, Spokesman for the Northern KFOR, Patrick Chanliau, showed journalists a list of confiscated equipment.  The result of the eight hour long search was: ten automatic rifles, seven plastic explosives, one grenade, two handguns, a lot of ammunition...  Chanliau stated at the same press conference that "every attack on American and German soldiers is an attack on the KFOR in its entirety."  He pointed out that "this is an organized team under higher command."  He also mentioned that similar actions will continue in the days to come.

The search war really continued the next morning.  The part of town Bosnjacka mahala was once again blocked off.  Again the raids began in the early morning hours, and what is most interesting, the Americans once again participated.  This time the Serbs did not protest, but the Americans were less conspicuous.  The KFOR changed its tactics: six French and two American soldiers conducted the search door to door.  They entered garages, bathrooms, opened up water heating units and in some places even lifted off the floor.

"I'm not crazy to keep weapons in the fridge when I know that they will search my entire house," stated a resident of Bosnjacka mahala.  On the previous day pamphlets were dropped out of helicopters warning residents that searches will be conducted.

MARCH FROM PRISTINA: On February 21 unrests in Mitrovica began, attracting the attention of the media at large.  The short-lived victory against the American and German soldiers was contained because of fear of an Albanian invasion.  Already in the early hours there was news that "they are on their way from Pristina," with the inevitable question "whether the British will let them cross the bridge."

"It is in our blood not to believe the English, the Americans and the British.  Serbs have suffered the greatest degradation in the sectors under English, American and British control.  Albanian politician called them to Kosovska Mitrovica.  How are we supposed to believe them?" states Marko Jaksic, President of the Democratic Party of Serbia  for Kosovo and Metohija.  Like the majority of Serb residents of Kosovo, he believes that the soldiers from these three countries are "secretly or publicly supporting the extremist Albanians."

But before the convoy dubbed the "Peace March" reach half way on the road to Mitrovica, local Albanians already organized their protests.  >From noon they began trying to cross the bridge.  They were stopped at the first barricade in the vicinity of the Jugobanka building which had been taken over by the OSCE and the UN Civil Mission for this city.  Albanians tried in vain to break apart the first line of international soldiers.  The Americans and the British showed determination in stopping them.

On the Serb side of town, armored vehicles were already headed toward destinations in the southern part of the city.  The season of dangerous living in Kosovo has already begun.  Snipers' nests and lookouts were located on the highest buildings.  The international forces did not live anything to chance.  Serbs were watching from all buildings what is happening "on the other side of the Ibar River."  Except for numerous demonstrators and Albanian flags which fluttered in the wind, nothing else was visible.  When after an hour they began dispersing, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.  However, the period of trials only followed.

SIMMERING CITY: At quarter to four in the afternoon, pandemonium broke out.  In the conflicts between the north (Serbs) and the south (Albanians) up to now, nothing of the sort was seen.  According to some estimates, around ten thousand Albanians rushed in full force toward the bridge.  The first and second KFOR cordons were broken in the first onslaught.  Immediately after this teargas was used for several hours, causing even the soldiers to cough.  The clouds of smoke engulfed the demonstrators who persisted in their attempt to get to the north of the city.

Mayor of the southern part of the city, Bajram Redzepi, spoke in vain on the local radio station that he is "against violence and unorganized attempts at crossing the bridge."  The demonstrators were adamant.  They appeared to be spurred on by Redzepi's statement that "the idea for these demonstrations originated in Pristina, and not Kosovska Mitrovica."

The clash between the Albanians and NATO soldiers lasted long enough for women and children in the Serb part of town to gather together bare essentials and to head for neighboring Zvecani.  At the exit to the city they were stopped and returned by a group of the staunchest Serbs who decided to stay in the simmering city at all cost.  In front of one building, women showered a French soldier who promised them that "Albanians will not cross the bridge."

Uncertainty was perpetuated by a lack of information on whether the convoy from Pristina managed to enter the city.  Controversial rumor only contributed to raising tensions: "they entered the city," "the KFOR is keeping them at bay at the Automobile Factory" and "there will be all out bloodshed."
According to an old model, around one thousand Serb civilians watched the battle between the Albanians and the KFOR soldiers.  With an occasional Serbian folk hat among them and carrying solid objects in case a fight brakes out, they waited for further developments.  It is a question whether those developments would have taken place on that very day had not Bernard Kushner, Claus Reinhardt and Agim Cheku promised demonstrators "an undivided city" and "a speedy return of Albanians to the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica."

At a meeting held in the seat of UNMIK, the leaders of the Kosovo Albanians reached an agreement with representatives of the international community for the convoy of Albanians from Pristina, who at that time already numbered around twenty thousand, to return back to Pristina.  Around 7 p.m. the situation gradually calmed.  Helicopters lighted the bridge with beam lights as barbed wire and tanks were readied by soldiers.

STATEMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS: High diplomats were pretty busy.  A little after Richard Holbrook accused Slobodan Milosevic of attempting to destabilize the situation in northern Kosovo, the Committee for the Protection of Human Rights from Kosovska Mitrovica, an organization that is very close to the Socialist Party of Serbia, issued an announcement.  Addressing Holbrook directly the announcement mentions among other things that "your soldiers, i.e. Americans and Germans, used hatchets to break up schools and faculties, forced apart floors, broke up columns in a school like barbarians, ransacked people's apartments, forced women and children in pajamas to go into the street, taking money and valuables from apartments...  German soldiers clearly showed that they came to do what their forbears began wearing uniforms of Nazi Germany..."
Nearly unnoticed, on February 22 around one and a half thousand miners from the Trepca Mine demonstrated peacefully in the southern part of the city.  There wasn't a single Serb miner among them.  They demanded that they have their jobs returned to them as soon as possible.