Balkanalysis.com

Woes Continue for UN in Kosovo as Peacekeepers Turn Homicidal

“Let’s see how the UN tries to spin this one,” a Kosovo resident told us yesterday, regarding the news that an American-Jordanian shootout had left 3 international police officers dead in Mitrovica, and 11 others wounded.

Yet however adroit the colonial spin machine is at the quick generation of damage control, this time the press got there first. The AP, AFP and Serbian television were issuing reports, photos and footage from the latest ‘Ground Zero’ in this cursed province on Saturday afternoon. The wounded had been taken to the Serbian hospital in north Mitrovica on Saturday, and simultaneously Serbian language TV was showing footage from the scene of the crime. Doctor Milan Ivanovic even held a press conference to shed light on the mysterious murders.

The cause of the shooting that has left 3 dead and 11 wounded, it was initially reported, was a dispute over Iraq between American and Jordanian police. One report on Sunday quoted a UN source as attesting this: “‘…apparently, they were talking about Iraq and everything just went out of control,’ a United Nations official said.” And a Reuters report dated 3:45 PM EST on Saturday clearly states Iraq as the reason for the dispute: “…two Americans and a Jordanian were shot dead in Kosovo Saturday when emotions over Iraq apparently boiled over into a gun battle between members of the U.N. law enforcement mission.” Finally, our source in Kosovo contacted by telephone yesterday also claimed that Iraq was the source of discord in Mitrovica the day before.

Yet this hasn’t stopped the official UN apparatus from contradicting this motive on several occasions, making for a typically opaque understanding of why the shootings actually happened.

Readers should note that when contacted by phone on Monday morning, UNMIK Regional Media Officer in Mitrovica Tracy Becker firmly denied the Iraq angle. “That is just a rumor,” she told us. “That is a story made up by Reuters. Everyone who says that (i.e., about Iraq) is trying to stretch it.” According to her, the situation is back to normal in Mitrovica, international police are cooperating on the investigation as it continues, and no new information is available yet.

As information “trickles down” in the next few days, however, we will likely have a much more rounded story.

Reuters has not made any comments in regards to Becker’s charge. However, the news giant did prominently feature the UN’s new, non-Iraq version 24 hours after it had released its first report on Saturday.

The second report relayed the UN’s position that it “doesn’t know” the reason for the gunfight, leaving the Iraq possibility unmentioned. At a press conference on Sunday in Pristina, UN Police Commissioner Stefan Feller confirmed that 2 American female officers and 1 male Jordanian were killed, and that 4 more Jordanians are now in custody. Yet when asked whether an argument over Iraq lay behind the fighting, Feller said, “…we don’t know the motive… I cannot say the reasons for the incident.” He and other UN sources also disputed claims that a verbal argument had preceded the shooting.

This contradicts the earlier reports and our source in Kosovo, who stated that the trouble began when 2 female American officers were drawn into an argument over Iraq: “…this was caused by some argument over Iraq itself or over prior arguments between Americans and Jordanians. Now all the American police in Mitrovica want to fight.”

However Media Officer Becker repeatedly denied that any conversation or argument had preceded the shooting on Monday.

The story gets odder still when we turn to testimony from some of the Americans involved, who speak darkly of an “ambush” and “planned” attacks. Could the much-vaunted clash of civilizations be dawning in Mitrovica? If so, it would seem to have come out of nowhere. Just two weeks ago, after all, we visited the international police station in that city, and civility prevailed. A Jordanian officer treated us to orange sodas and the Americans were in good spirits. What could have happened since then?

According to the husband of wounded American officer Beth Mechler, she “…and other U.N. officers were ‘ambushed’ while driving away on their first day of an assignment to Kosovo to work at the prison.”

UN police spokesman Neeraj Singh said the incident occurred as the American officers, 2 Turks and 1 Austrian “…were finishing their induction training and leaving the detention centre” in north Mitrovica:

“…they were leaving in three vehicles and the convoy was fired upon by at least one out of five Jordanians that were on guard. The Jordanian attacker was killed as well as two American female officers in an exchange of fire.”

The same general story was reported by UN Police Commissioner Feller. However, the Reuters report which carries his testimony is unclear as to whether it was specifically Feller, or another “UN spokesman” who “…denied that the shooting had been preceded by a verbal clash.”

The report goes on to cite an American policeman “who declined to be named” as saying that the attack had been “organized.”

Organized? This sounds downright murky. No subsequent reports have embellished on this theme, making it hard to adduce its veracity. However, there seems to be one likely reason if not for the shooting spree, at least for the mistrust: inexperience and mutual ignorance. The Americans and Jordanians involved were newcomers- “…the Americans involved had arrived less than two weeks ago in Kosovo for a tour of duty with the U.N. force… the Jordanians had been there only a week or so longer,” according to Feller.

And, added the Hindu, “…Saturday was the first day at work for the dead and the injured, who belonged to a new U.S. contingent of officers who arrived in Kosovo just 10 days ago.”

In other words, these were not officers who had a long history of working together and relying on one another. Just as anywhere else, international friendships in Kosovo develop over time. It seems that the new, incoming officers had not had the chance to develop any relationships, or to know anything about one another aside from the flag on their uniforms. In such a situation, mistrust is high. When we add to that the current tensions that the ongoing Iraq mess is causing around the world, one suspects that there might be something to the initial prevailing reports- that some antagonism over Iraq ultimately caused the confrontation.

We also learn that one of the wounded Americans, Beth Mechler, was employed by the mercenary company DynCorp- a time-honored employer for Balkans peacekeeping missions. Another article adds that most of the US police officers in Kosovo are employed by DynCorp, “…a private company that trains police, corrections and judicial officers who work in
places such as Kosovo and Iraq.”

The mystery over the shooting may not be definitively solved until some questions are answered: where were these new American recruits being shipped in from, and why? Was it a routine changeover of staff, or had they been called in as emergency back-ups following last month’s riots? Did any of them have previous experience in Iraq?

UN boss Harri Holkeri says he is “deeply shocked and dismayed” by the shootings. It’s been a tough month for the rookie UN administrator. There is only one real winner in this fiasco, and that is the Albanian extremists who set the province alight last month in a drive to ethnically cleanse Kosovo of Serbs in advance of their anticipated march to independence. That little episode was Holkeri’s first reason for being “shocked and dismayed.” Yet since the UN colonial administration and its armed KFOR guard have since made life tough for the perpetrators, making sudden raids and scores of arrests, the prospect of international peacekeepers’ going postal on one another is like manna from heaven for the Albanians, who are trying to find the quickest way of getting rid of the internationals. Indeed, why go to all the trouble of killing them, when they can just kill each other?

Ironically, this was supposed to be the UN’s golden moment, the time when the colonial administration showed its fearless resolve, integrity and unified stance in the face of militant extremism, intimidation and cultural chauvinism. Yet that Three Musketeers bravado is now very much up in the air.

Exactly one month to the day after the infamous 3-day riots first struck fear into the hearts of international peacekeepers, this latest turbulence has put them on edge once again. Yet there is a qualitative difference: the riots merely taught them to be wary of the Kosovo locals and their nominal colleagues in the Kosovo Police Service; the new murders are instructing them to be afraid of one another.

Little illustration is required to understand the great complexity this presents. The internationals are supposed to be the (armed) voice of reason in Kosovo, the refreshing alternative to the rule of local thugs and militants. They are supposed to be the ones, in any and every case, who can provide shelter for vulnerable minorities and indeed any civilian in danger. Yet if the confidence-builders start shooting each other too, then who can the average citizen in Kosovo turn to for protection? If March 17 will be remembered as the day when Kosovo’s hatreds turned homicidal, despite the UN’s best efforts to keep the peace, April 17 may well be remembered as the day when the Kosovo UNMIK administration turned suicidal- with no one able to save the peacekeepers from one another.

There is a silver lining here. If things keep going this way, the UN contingents may be able to hire armed guards from the local Kosovar population- which is, after all, brimming over with qualified candidates.