Interesting developments in the North

In the municipality of Mitrovica, there is an accepted chain of law enforcement:

1. The Kosovo Police are the supposed first responders and deal with all issues, having a leadership role in most of the issues.
2. EULEX defers to the Kosovo Police, but they do take on their own investigations, give the Kosovo Police necessary support, and use their own judges for trials in Mitrovica.
3. KFOR (NATO's mission) is really in Mitrovica more for security reasons, and are the last resort if a situation gets out of hand. They are hands off on investigations and most criminal issues; however because they have the best resources, they can really come in whenever they want to quell an event. KFOR also controls the airspace over Mitrovica and runs practice missions there.

Now regarding the July 2nd protest (as an aside, Serbia's President Boris Tadic called on the United Nations Security Council to have a meeting on the July 2nd protest) and the July 5th shooting of a Serbian government official, initially the Kosovo Police were investigating these incidents. But according to this article from Serbia's B92 news, EULEX is now taking the lead in the investigation, which means that the investigation will be stepped up (and hopefully unbiased). EULEX taking over Kosovo Police's investigations is not uncommon, and either EULEX can step in or the Police can request EULEX assistance.

For the time being, EULEX investigating these two early July incidents is a good thing, because there is now the confrontation between Kosovo and Serbia of Kosovo's decision to send a special policing unit into the north of Kosovo. According to Gallucci's blog, Kosovo already sent up a special unit (KPS/ROSU) in June; however this special unit in which I speak of has yet to be deployed (again) to patrol. The unit is made up of mainly Kosovar Albanians. Interestingly, Kosovo believes that it has the capacity and resource to sustain this unit in the North without the help of EULEX. EULEX has already stated in multiple articles that they will not collaborate with the Kosovo Police on this mission nor do they think that it is useful for Kosovo to do so. To further this, NATO Commander of Allied Joint Force Command Admiral Mark Fitzgerald visited Kosovo yesterday and said "The situation all over Kosovo was and continues to be absolutely calm, peaceful and very safe." He does not foresee increased security in the country, which is probably directed at the announcement of the special policing unit in the North.

To break it down: NATO as well as EULEX do not see an inflamed security situation in Mitrovica North, or the North of Kosovo, due to the two incidents that occurred in the beginning of July. Kosovo understands these views, but at the same time, government officials see the special policing unit as a way to sustain stability, create greater stability (if one can do so), and contribute to the overall security and peace in the region. Belgrade on the other hand, views the deployment of this policing force as an affront to the Serb population in the North and as an informal act of war, mainly because Kosovo will be imposing the police unit without speaking to any of the authorities in the region. As a reminder, Belgrade has a strong influence in the north of Kosovo which consists of a large Serbian population, especially in Mitrovica North, where there is also an illegally elected municipal administration that 'runs' that part of the city. Belgrade does not want to give this region up to Kosovo, nor does Kosovo want to partition it to Serbia. We will see what happens in the near future, but it is a bit of mess in the North right now.