By Ben Kopp
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe
PRISTINA, Republic of Kosovo – Unknown gunmen killed a EULEX police officer after shooting at his vehicle. A murder investigation has been opened in the northern region of Kosovo, where the death occurred.
In 1999, NATO ended the massacre and expulsion of ethnic Albians from Kosovo. Although 2008 saw Kosovo declare independence from Serbia, the Serb government rejected the secession and exerted control over the northern strip of Kosovo, which consists of 50,000 Serbs. Around the time of Kosovo’s independence, the EU deployed its largest ever civilian mission: the EU Rule of Law Mission (EULEX).
Approximately 100 countries and the United States recognize Kosovo as an independent country. However, UN Security Council veto-holder and Serbian ally, Russia has continued to block Kosovo’s entry to the United Nations.
In April 2013, Serbia agreed to cede its control over Kosovo’s northern Serbs in order to boost its status with the EU. In that region, the ethnic Serb minority has grown increasingly nervous over their anticipated integration with the rest of Kosovo and its Albian majority. As such, Serb leaders in northern Kosovo have called for a boycott of the November elections.
On 19 September 2013, in a northern region of Kosovo near Municipality Zvecan, gunmen opened fire on two EULEX vehicles and fatally shot Audrius Senavicius, a Lithuanian man serving with EULEX. A Czech officer with Senavicius was hospitalized. This is the first death in the EU’s mission since it began in 2008, even though recent years have seen criminal gangs working with near-impunity. Indeed, EU officials reported that recent months have been calm.
The attack follows the acquittal of Fatmir Limaj and nine others accused of war crimes related to the 1998 killings of Serbian and Albanian civilians. Two EULEX judges and one Kosovo judge ruled that a diary on the alleged war crimes was unreliable because it contained inconsistent and contradictory information.
According to the Serbian government’s pointman for Kosovo, Aleksander Vulin, those responsible for the officer’s death are “the greatest foe of the Serbs and the Serbian state.”
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his top envoy in Kosovo strongly condemned the attack, and urged that those responsible be brought to justice. In a statement, Ki-moon stressed “the importance for all concerned to cooperate with the investigation and ensure security and freedom of movement of EULEX and other international presences in the implementation of their respective mandates.”
Farid Zarif, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Kosovo, stated that “this abhorrent act of violence is a direct assault on the principles of peace, justice and civility that international missions are in Kosovo to serve. Any attack against representatives of the international community is an attack on the international community as a whole.”
Additionally, to ensure that investigators do their work unobstructed, the Secretary-General’s envoy urged the world to avoid speculation about motives or identities of those responsible.
For further information, please see:
BBC News – EU Police Officer Killed in Kosovo – September 19, 2013
CNN International – EU Officer Killed in Kosovo Shooting – September 19, 2013
InSerbia – Kosovo: EULEX Staff Member Audrius Šenavičius Killed Near Zvecan – September 19, 2013
Reuters – EU Police Officer Shot Dead in Kosovo, Testing Fragile Accord – September 19, 2013
UN News Centre – Kosovo: UN Officials Strongly Condemn Fatal Attack on European Union Convoy – September 19, 2013
Wall Street Journal – EU Customs Officer Dies Amid Gunfire in Kosovo – September 19, 2013
Human Rights Watch – Dispatches: For Kosovo Victims, No Justice Yet – September 18, 2013
RadioFreeLiberty/RadioEurope – Former Kosovo Rebel Commander Cleared of War Crimes – September 17, 2013
