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Protest Against UN Plan Turns Bloody in Pristina
12 February 2007 
Tensions
set to escalate in disputed territory after pro-independence demonstrators
killed on weekend march.
By Krenar
Gashi and Jeta Xharra in Pristina (Balkan Insight, 12 Feb 07)
Hundreds
gathered on Sunday, February 11, in the centre of Pristina to mourn the victims
of the previous day’s demonstration against the UN peace plan that turned
violent and ended in fatalities. Two people died and more than 80 were injured
in clashes with the police.
Most of
those who returned on Sunday lit candles in memory of the dead men, named as
Arben Xheladini, 34, and Man Balaj, 30.
Some wept,
not only from sorrow but as a result of the residue of the rounds of tear gas
that police fired into the city’s principal Mother Theresa street.
Fatmir
Rexhepi, Kosovo’s interior minister, condemned the protest on Saturday, saying
the security situation in Kosovo had “worsened as a result”.
About
3,000 people responded to the call of a nationalist organisation called Vetevendosje
(self-determination), to protest against the UN proposal on Kosovo’s final
status.
They are
angered by the terms of the deal, which they say offers too many concessions to
the Serbian minority and to the government in Belgrade. Serbia strongly opposes
independence for Kosovo, claiming it as an integral part of its own territory.
The Kosovo
Police Service, KPS, supported by the Special Police Unit of the UN mission in
Kosovo, UNMIK, used tear gas and rubber bullets when the protesters tried to
break through police lines.
Albin
Kurti, Vetevendosje’s leader, who was arrested later that day, claimed the
protest had been non-violent in nature and condemned the police intervention as
brutal and politically motivated.
The police
have responded that they are obliged to protect public property and government
buildings from potential assault.
Protests
organised by Vetevendosje have turned violent before, although not on this
scale. The last rally, on November 28, 2006, resulted in light damage to government
buildings after protesters pelted windows with stones.
“We
considered that the [government’s] property was endangered by the protesters
and we took the necessary measures,” said Veton Elshani, the KPS spokesperson.
Behxhet
Shala, of a local civil rights group, the Council for Defence of Human Rights
and Freedom, described the police action as a “severe violation of human
rights”.
“I have
never seen such an amount of tear gas. Despite the fact that there was no
violence from the protesters, the police was quite prepared to be violent,” he
said.
The
protest began peacefully on Saturday with marchers moving off from
Vetevendosje’s headquarters towards the government and parliament buildings.
Placards attacked the proposal for Kosovo drawn up by the UN envoy Martti
Ahtisaari and the Kosovo negotiating team.
Other
groups joined the core of protesters, including members of missing persons
organisations, war veterans groups and people who wanted to protest against
corruption.
Just
before they reached government buildings, police stopped the crowd who stood
there for several minutes, listening to speeches from the organisers. The clash
began after Albin Kurti urged the crowd to continue the march to the parliament
and government building despite the police blockade.
Police
then opened fire with rounds of teargas and rubber bullets for about one hour,
despite the fact that most of the protesters quickly ran away.
Dugagjin
Gorani, a local political analyst who took part in the protest, said the police
“started shooting at us indiscriminately; I felt like they made a terrorist out
of all of us”.
But KPS
spokesperson Elshani was unrepentant. “We had information that the protestors
are going to be very radical and we have evidence that they threw two Molotov
cocktails at the police,” he said.
The
authorities were clearly taking no chances. Special police units from Romania, Ukraine,
Poland and Italy deployed
in support of KPS colleagues who are not equipped with rubber bullets. The two
men died from rubber bullets hitting their faces and necks.
Kosovo’s
political leaders expressed their condolences to their the families. Both the
protest and its aftermath have divided the community. “They shouldn’t start
protesting at all,” said one woman who watched the events from her balcony.
The Kosovo
negotiating team also condemned the marchers. “The violent protest stimulated
by Albin Kurti and Vetevendosje… is against Kosovo’s stability and general
interests,” they said on Sunday.
But Alban
Bokshi, a civil society activist, said the police strategy had been
counterproductive. “In such situations the police should use a defensive
strategy but instead they used an offensive one,” he said. “They fired over 200
rounds of gas in one hour.”
Dugagjin
Gorani said such types of policing would only recruit more people to
Vetevendosje. “I went just to see what would happen and came home
‘self-determined’,” he said.
Arben
Xheladini will be buried at 16:00 on Monday, February 12, in Pristina cemetery
and Man Balaj the next day.
Krenar
Gashi is BIRN’s Kosovo Editor. Jeta Xharra is BIRN’s Kosovo Director. Balkan
Insight is BIRN’s online publication.
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The opinions expressed in Balkan Insight are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network.
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