According to the Kosovo police, the situation in the north is normalized. Yet politicians have conflicting opinions.
The deputy regional commander of the Kosovo police Besim Hoti stressed that the current situation in the north is stable regardless of the incidents that have occurred in recent days. He said that police presence increased.
“The police, taking into account all the tensions and events, has stepped up security measures and it turned out that there were no inter-ethnic problems, which would affect the overall safety. Some cases, such as throwing hand grenades and explosions remain as investigative activities, in order to reveal and arrest the perpetrators of these crimes,” said Besim Hoti.
Mayor of Mitrovica North Goran Rakic gave a telephone statement about the security situation in Mitrovica with particular focus on the Bosniak Mahala, Brdjane and bridge over the Ibar/Iber River.
-Bosniak Mahala is the only example of multi-ethnicity in the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija, and right here we have all communities, Bosniak, Albanian and Serbian. When I say that the bridge was one of the key elements when it comes to the security situation in Kosovo in the north, then I have to say that every event, every unilateral move of Pristina, causes unrest, tensions and these unilateral moves cannot be applied on the field, but both sides must agree for any kind of activity on the bridge over the Ibar – said the Mayor of Mitrovica North Goran Rakic.
Rakic’s colleague from South Mitrovica Agim Bahtiri said that the situation in this town was satisfactory. He condemned the bombing of the house of Dragan Jablanovic.
Representatives of the Serbian National Council for the deterioration of the security situation in the north cite other reasons.
-I think that political situation is very bad in northern Kosovo, bearing in mind planting a bomb, taking into account ignition of vehicles; this is something which gives rise to anxiety among Serbs especially because security in northern Kosovo decreases with greater number of KPS officers – said Marko Jaksic.
– For a long time, problems were because of the money here, at least the last few years. The security is bad since the bomb was thrown and the perpetrator is not caught – said Nebojsa Jovic.
In order to achieve better security situation in northern Kosovo, required is better cooperation among all social actors, such as citizens, municipalities and police. Deputy regional commander of the Kosovo police Besim Hoti said that many cases were resolved, but that the public was not enough informed and said that the investigation of the latest incident was in progress.
