WHAT IS KNOWN?
On the night of September 24, a group of armed Serbs set up a barricade of two trucks on the bridge near the village of Banjska, fifteen kilometers inside northern Kosovo. The conflict with the Kosovo police began at 2.45:XNUMX a.m. – one policeman was killed, another was wounded. By dawn, the skirmish had spread to the village of Banjska. There, a Serbian group - outnumbered and surrounded by reinforcements arriving for the Kosovo police - broke into the courtyard of the monastery, probably with the intention of using it as a point of resistance. The shooting lasted almost the whole day. Four armed Serbs were killed, at least as many were wounded, eight were arrested, and the rest managed to break through.
This is more or less known. Everything else is guesswork and speculation. Specifically: what was the goal of the Serbian armed group, under whose command was it and, in particular, who needed it? If it is not possible to give complete answers at this moment, it is possible to conclude something from the scanty and often contradictory information from the north of Kosovo, from Pristina and Belgrade.
WHEN THE ARMY RETURNS TO KOSOVO
A leaden, ominous silence reigns among the Serbs in the north of Kosovo. People are confused, desperate and angry. Fear can be felt. One hears a sentence spoken many times, but now with special weight: "We are left to ourselves." The Serbian population mostly talks about the dead - who was killed, will the Albanian media report that another body was found in the forest or will it be heard that someone succumbed to injuries in the hospital in Novi Pazar. It is not clear to them why all this happened, because they have the most damage.
"For months, they warned about repression coming from Pristina. And until a few days ago, the blame for the situation was on the Kosovo side, on Kurti, and now the Serbs in Kosovo have had all their arguments knocked out of their hands. Pristina got the proof they needed that everything they said in the previous months was true," explains Sanja Sovrlić, a journalist from N1, born and raised in Kosovo.
The members of the armed Serbian group who participated in the armed conflict with the Kosovo police were from the north of Kosovo - two of the dead were from Leposavic, one from Zvečani. Locals describe them mostly as family people, they are surprised that some of them were part of an armed group.
"What were they like? Well, like us", says one of the attendees. They point out that the dominant view is that these people were abused and manipulated.
"I'm thinking about those graffiti 'When the army returns to Kosovo', about how that narrative was nurtured from all sides," says Sovrlić and continues, "and that's why, first of all, the problem is not only those who believed in it, but in those who convinced them to believe in it, who persistently fueled their hopes, assured them that they were doing the right thing if they picked up their guns."
Indeed, who is behind the armed Serbian group in Banjska?
"There are too many questions that we cannot answer, neither for ourselves nor for others", Milica Radovanović from the New Social Initiative in North Mitrovica tells "Vreme", adding that no one in the north of Kosovo can consider the members of that group to be terrorists: "We do not think that they were paid guerrillas who went to shoot for material gain.” Then he paused, then continued: "You know, it will sound terrible, but today here men are crying and regretting that they did not die..."
FACTOR RADOCIC
The last two years are mostly described by the Serbs in Kosovo as a constant escalation of the situation - until the shooting. Radovanović reminds that since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, special units of the Kosovo police have been increasingly present and numerous in the North, their bases are being built, land is being expropriated...
Crisis followed crisis, and each one was more incendiary than the last: the crisis over the plates, the withdrawal of Serbs from institutions, barricades on several occasions, local elections in which the Serbian population did not turn out. There are opinions that the actors from the fight in June could be connected to the actors of the attack on the Kosovo police.
In the previous months, in the North, distrust in Kosovo's institutions, which has always been low, reached its peak: Serbs were constantly receiving lawsuits for war crimes that lawyers claim were politically motivated, the Kosovo police are sowing fear, there are frequent attacks by the authorities on the Diocese of Raska-Prizren... Some they see the Croatian scenario in everything. We are talking about arbitrary arrests on dubious charges of war crimes and marathon-long trials in order to demotivate returnees and intimidate the domiciled Serbian population.
And the north of Kosovo has long been called a crime center. There are many reasons for this: the politically motivated murder of Oliver Ivanovic, liquidations in the underground, burning of cars, beatings... All this is attributed to the structures connected to Srpska lista - the progressive transmission in Kosovo - which has complete dominance over the political and social life of the Serbs there.
"Vučić created them because he needed them," foreign policy analyst Boško Jakšić told Vreme. "Those structures got lucrative jobs in Serbia, had forest smuggling routes, some of them participated in illegal drug trade, and, in general, got enormously rich in a very short time. They are ready to do anything to defend this kind of existence."
photo: instagram / petar petkovićON DISPLAY OF ARMAMENTS: Milan Radoičić (second from the left) and Petar Petković, Goran Rakić, Igor Simić
It is from these structures that Milan Radoičić, the vice-president of the Serbian List and a businessman, comes. In 2021, the United States imposed sanctions against him as a member of a group suspected of "corruption, violation of human rights, illegal trade in goods, money, narcotics and weapons between Kosovo and Serbia." Also, the Kosovo authorities connected him with the murder of Oliver Ivanovic.
"Until 2013, we didn't even know about Milan Radoičić, he came during the wave of application and implementation of the Brussels Agreement, when the citizens of the North were supposed to be integrated into the Kosovo system, which they didn't want, so Belgrade put pressure on them," says Sovrlić.
photo: kosovo police / apIT FENCED ITSELF FROM AN ARMED GROUP: Brothers of the Banjska Monastery
According to reports from Pristina, Radoičić was a member of an armed Serbian group from Banjska. Kosovo's Minister of Internal Affairs, Dzheljalj Svečlja, released a video from a drone of a dozen men with weapons and in uniforms - some even wearing masks - in front of the lodgings in the monastery. For one of them, who wears a hat and raises his head at one point, Prishtina claims that he is Radoičić. While this text is being written, it is neither possible to confirm nor deny it. There are also rumors that he was wounded and receiving treatment in Serbia, but without any proof. But why is Milan Radoičić so important?
"His patriotism can be measured by banknotes," says Sovrlić. "We also know how close he is to official Belgrade and how many jobs he received from the current government. Was there coordination between them in this case? Or did he decide to take those steps on his own? Even if Belgrade did not know about it, Vučić cannot be absolved of responsibility for nurturing, to say the least, dubious structures and supporting personalities with very dubious biographies."
Indeed, if Radoičić was in Banjska, the President of Serbia has a serious problem. If his environment and the Services in Serbia knew about the armed action in Banjska, Vučić will face serious compromise and loss of credibility in the region and the relevant international community. On the other hand, if neither he nor anyone else in the state structures knew, then the head of state must admit that he lost control over Radoičić and Srpski list. Because how is it possible that its leaders did not know what their vice president does?
"At this moment, Radoičić is a bigger threat to Vučić than Vučić is to Radoičić," concludes Jakšić.
IS THERE A VULIN IN BIA?
According to the videos that the Kosovo police provide to the media, the Serbian group was heavily armed. Certainly, these are not exactly top-notch weapons and equipment, but neither are they military waste. Meanwhile, images of seized ammunition, grenade launchers, mortars, automatic rifles, combat vests and the like are being multiplied. In Pristina, they claim that the "stekes" in question are intended for a much larger number of people.
Indeed, AK-47s, explosives, ammunition – possibly mortars – are relatively easy to come by in Kosovo. After the 1998/99 war. neither the Serbs nor the Albanians disarmed. However, it is not possible to put a group like the one seen in Banjska "in operation" just like that. Such a thing requires organization, subordination, logistics, mutual trust and the like. There have been armed conflicts and incidents - albeit smaller than the last one - between the Kosovo police and Serbian structures from the north of Kosovo before. However, members of the latter were never uniformed as they are now in Banjska.
"We have never had anything like this," Professor Aleksandar Životić tells "Vreme". "Various groups over the course of a century, in addition to uniforms and visible carrying of weapons, came forward with names, symbols, program, command and goals. We did not see any of that in this particular case. Everything is still too murky for any conclusions.”
Such groups operate with the support of the secret service or with its tacit consent. Is it possible that BIA, VOA, VBA, as well as the MUP of Serbia had no information about the group from Banjska? It is even worse if there are wild and self-interested factions in them, who, based on their own calculations, try to subvert each other. And it would only be disastrous if it was a "state operation" whose course had gone wrong and now everyone is hiding, running away and acting silly. Something similar to the Bay of Pigs in Cuba when the CIA left the counter-revolutionaries stranded, whose landing went wrong in the first hours.
Was the group from Banjska promised help and from whom? And one more thing: in this particular case, many things resemble recipes from the beginning of the wars in the former Yugoslavia in the nineties of the last century. All services in the region dealt with it, and the State Security of the MUP of Serbia with the greatest success.
Where do all these questions and speculations come from? It has already been said - due to the deep penetration of Radoičić and the Serbian List with the regime in Belgrade. It is not only political, but also business, security and everything else. That the dissatisfaction of the leaders of the Serbian List with Belgrade's politics has been going on for a long time could be seen at their meeting with Vučić in December 2022. They listened to him then, but has anything changed there?
In last year's video message recorded in Kosovo, Milan Radoičić says: "I'm here. I'm back. And you know what that means."
photo: TanjugKOSOVSKA MITROVICA: The dead fellow citizens whose names have not yet been published in Serbia
Be that as it may, the silence of the authorities in Belgrade is striking. During earlier conflicts or rising tensions in Kosovo, the regime's television stations had special shows for whole days, and the tabloids competed in publishing details, testimonies, reconstructions and claims that Serbia is already at war and the like. Now all this is gone. It took Aleksandar Vučić almost eighteen hours to address the public - he has never hesitated so much in his recent history. Finally, in about an hour in front of the cameras, rarely inarticulate and nervous, he didn't answer a single essential question. Primarily, his version of the events in Banjska, the names of the dead Serbs, the explanation of how it all happened and much more were missing. Blaming Kurti and claiming that it is a rebellion of people who live in the north of Kosovo - central Serbia because of the indictments from Pristina, they can satisfy few.
Vučić also condemned the Kosovo Prime Minister and the violence on both sides. However, he missed a clear determination against the group from Banjska. It is obvious that he feels uneasy: the Kosovo authorities provide information in a targeted manner and in installments, and he is not sure what they know, what the statements of the arrested will be, who will be apostrophized - true or false, it doesn't matter - every statement he makes threatens to jump into his own mouth.
It seems that Vučić is buying time and looking for a way to repair the damage. He is probably also conducting negotiations with various actors - directly and through intermediaries - since September 24. No matter what it was about, Vučić cannot be helped by the statement from his address to the public that "they can kill us all, but we will never recognize Kosovo". Perhaps these words are fine for uncritical supporters, but primarily they suggest panic and doom.
WHO NEEDED ALL THIS??
The key unanswered question is what the group of armed Serbs in Banjska actually wanted to achieve. That's why conspiracy theories flourish. The Albanian side has more or less no doubts. A typical opinion is expressed by Pristina lawyer Skender Musa: "This attack was well planned, everything was detailed and their goal was to infiltrate Mitrovica and declare a Serbian republic or autonomy there, simply to violate the constitutional order of the Republic of Kosovo."
Everything can be heard on the other side. For one, it is an attempt by the Russian services to provoke a conflict in the Balkans for the sake of the process of destabilization of Europe, that is, a black CIA operation to enable Kurti to "finish the job" in Kosovo. These theories depend on the personal preferences of those who present them and are not supported by anything.
The same was said about the action aimed at ensuring the transport of a large amount of narcotics, so unforeseen complications occurred. Although this area is known for drug smuggling, who would do it like that? The goal of smugglers is to be as inconspicuous as possible, by no means to draw attention to themselves in this way.
It is certain that what happened in Banjska is completely contrary to the official positions of Serbia. Also, it does not benefit her in any way.
"Before Banjska, due to Kurti's rigid refusal to form the Union of Serbian Municipalities, Vučić was in a more favorable psychological and diplomatic position on the international scene," says Jakšić. "Now that status has been lost."
It is not disputed that Kurti bears the greatest responsibility for the escalation of violence in Kosovo during the last few years. Now someone from the Serbian side has come out to meet him, and that's exactly on the ground that he desires so much.
Was there an attempt to radicalize and put Vučić in front of a fait accompli? Is it possible to repeat the crazy adventurist policy from the official structures of Serbia according to the radical model from the last decade of the twentieth century? Or, in both cases, is it a dark warning to powerful and manipulative elements of what action they are ready to take if they feel they could be threatened or bypassed?
So, what happened in Banjska and for what purpose? The public of Serbia and Kosovo has the right to the truth, especially the Serbs in the North. Otherwise, it will not be good.
There are now calls for dialogue, says Sovrlić, but the situation is even more complicated than before: "I don't see in which direction we can go further, the positions are increasingly distant. What guarantees can Serbs in Kosovo get for a dignified life?"
Who is going to tell them now, Sovrlić wonders, to return to the police, to go to the polls: "I don't know where this dialogue is going - do we stay with the previous rounds where we talk about the implementation of agreements, normalization, the Union of Serbian Municipalities - and no I know what kind of will the citizens of northern Kosovo will have to participate, who were pushed into it by force in 2013, and Pristina and the international community, because it suited them, kept silent about the way it was happening."
The dominant fear among citizens is that they will end up in some tragic convoy, like the one from Uluja or the one in which Armenians fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh are now, or that they will leave two or three cars a day, and no deal will make sense anymore.
"They all failed this exam, they were ignored by the citizens' cries for someone to understand their position and demands. Belgrade has washed its hands, the Pristina institutions are repressive towards them, for the Western world independent Kosovo is sacred and they are satisfied with the cosmetic appearance of a multi-ethnic life which in fact does not exist", believes Sovrlić.
When it comes to the future of negotiations, Milica Radovanović has a similar opinion. "There are voices that believe that the latest events can mark a breakthrough in the dialogue. But I am convinced that this will not happen because neither Belgrade nor Pristina are interested in dialogue", she says, fearing that the latest events are a prelude to something even worse. Then he describes the current moment: "There are too many red-hot heads, there is too much triumphalism in the Albanian media - which always reflects on the position of the Serbian population - too much fear and sadness here. We don't even know what is right anymore."
And then Vučić's address arrived on Sunday at eight in the evening, 18 hours after the armed conflict began.
"What is the message from that press conference? What is the policy of the state of Serbia? For him, the question of recognition and non-recognition is only a weighing of political benefit and harm; for the government in Serbia, the events here are just a question of how to turn them into political points or how to control the damage. Kosovo is a calculation for everyone, both for the Government of Serbia, for Pristina and for the international community", says Milica Radovanović, and then adds: "It would be easier for all of them if we were not there at all."
What would be a sustainable solution for the life of Serbs in Kosovo? What should a responsible policy look like that did not aim only to instrumentalize conflicts for political and other benefits?
"There are many different interests here - the state of Serbia, the authorities, citizens of central Serbia, citizens of Kosovo, Pristina, the international community... The negotiations have lasted for 20 years and are an attempt to extract the maximum from the minimum due to the fact that in 1999 we lost the war. And no one clearly explained that to the citizens either", emphasized Sovrlić. "When it comes to Belgrade's current policy towards Kosovo, it is one thing - no less politics, no less strategy, indifference to people."
Several interlocutors from the north of Kosovo pointed out that one of the strongest impressions from Vučić's address was when he said that even if they kill us all, if there are no Serbs, they will not recognize an independent Kosovo.
"One of my friends said that Serbia constantly repeats what its red lines are, and they are usually slogans of a general type, but no one says - our red line is the people in Kosovo whom we want to enable to live there," adds Sovrlic.
Truth be told, Vučić did defend the Serbs in Kosovo many times with too strong words, promises that he knew he could not fulfill, enjoying his politically profitable, empty and dangerous Serbdom. So on May 26, in front of that sad, wet gathering, he shouted: "But I tell you, the first attack on the Serbs in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, Serbia will not sit idly by." Do you want to expel the Serbs? You will not drive them out.”
Sovrlić particularly criticizes Vučić, that is, his politics, not only because he "invested" in people like Radoičić, but also because he did not invest in what would pay off: "Serbia failed to encourage young people, to create a dynamic environment. There was a lot of enthusiasm here to create an environment that someone wants to live in, that is good to live in." But that opportunity was missed due to the fact that Belgrade only wanted to make an obedient electorate out of the Serbs in Kosovo, without dignity and critical thinking, without the desire for development.
And a lot of money from Serbia came to Kosovo, the largest number of people still depend on it today because they themselves or members of their families are employed in the institutions of the Republic of Serbia. There were a lot of various abuses.
"Some five years ago, Nikola Selaković was also at an event in Laplje Selo. He said that he met a lot of young Albanians who were educated abroad, who speak five or six languages, and he asked what our generational response is to that. And I really agree that there needs to be that generational response. Only the local answer was that Belgrade was creating its own obedient electorate, and that those who talk to Albanians and foreigners were called mercenaries and domestic traitors", concludes Sovrlić.
Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo
The Serbian Orthodox Church, i.e. the Diocese of Raško-Prizren (ERP) is undoubtedly the most trusted institution among the Serbian community in Kosovo. More precisely, probably the only institution there that enjoys trust. For years, they tried to maintain relations with the Kosovo authorities, sent moderate messages, called for calming the tension, and were among the few lonely voices of reason. In the end, in those times of 1999, the Church was the only one left in Kosovo, and the only one the Serbs could turn to.
Back then, official Belgrade, embodied in Vučić, resented certain, important for the community, representatives of the Diocese for being against his plan on demarcation.
As for Pristina, since Kurti came to power, the Serbian Orthodox Church has faced a number of problems. Starting with the fact that the current Kosovo government does not accept the identity of the SPC at all, does not use its official name, and to the fact that, for example, the website of the Kosovo police states that they protect several objects of the "Orthodox cult".
The security of church property is questionable - temples are broken into, and information on the progress of the investigation is rarely received. The government also does not respect the SPC as a legal entity. A few months ago, Milica Rakić Andrić, from the New Social Initiative, explained to "Vreme" that not only was the property of the Visoki Dečani monastery not registered in the cadastre, although there was a decision first by the Basic Court, then by the Supreme Court, and then by the Constitutional Court there, but the narrative about why that decision is not being implemented is constantly getting tougher.
"We recently heard that such a decision would only be possible to implement in dialogue with the local community, which seriously calls into question the rule of law and the judiciary," Milica Rakić Andrić explained at the time.
At the beginning of July, British MP Alicia Cairns told the parliament that weapons are being smuggled from Serbia to Kosovo in emergency vehicles, and that they are then stored in the premises of the Serbian Orthodox Church. The Eparchy then received a statement that it is very clearly against any violence, because it is contrary to the basic evangelical principles and mission of the Church, and that it wants to approach the mentioned accusations very seriously. They asked KFOR to inform the public if they could confirm the allegations of the British MP.
"If these allegations prove to be true, church persons who are proven to be possibly involved in the abuse of SPC facilities and church services for allegedly transferring or storing weapons, will suffer the most severe church punishments and will not be able to continue their public service. However, in the event that KFOR cannot confirm the truth of these claims, the Diocese of Raško-Prizren will request through the British Embassy in Pristina an apology from the mentioned MP for the inflammatory and inaccurate statement that has serious consequences." The announcement goes on to say that those claims must not remain at the level of slander, and become a means of imposing collective guilt on the Church, which has been exposed to attacks, slander and other forms of discrimination for years.
In the previous days, the Diocese made several announcements. What arrived on Sunday was, at first, not clear to the majority - who were the armed men who entered the monastery, Serbs or Albanians, what was happening in general... Later, when things became a little clearer, it became obvious that the Diocese had to he watches every word and every expression, because - even if false - the accusation that he is helping an armed group of Serbs would probably make him find himself in an untenable position.
Although they constantly call for peace, which even certain right-wing circles in Serbia resent, these days they are also the target of various Albanian portals and individuals.
The aforementioned lawyer Skender Musa stated that all the monks from the Banjska monastery should be arrested.
