Kosovo Police Log 656 Rounds in Zubin Potok Searches

Kosovo Police carried out searches at five locations in the Zubin Potok municipality on August 15 and seized two hunting rifles, an AK-47 assault rifle, two pistols and 656 rounds of ammunition. All cases were logged as unauthorized possession or control of weapons, and proceedings will continue through the regular procedure per the prosecutor’s decision, police said in a statement.

By the number of items recovered, the haul is the largest in a string of police operations that have been underway in the Ibarski Kolasin area since late July.

What Was Found at the Five Addresses?

Police released the inventory by location, without naming the homeowners:

• one woman’s house yielded a licensed hunting rifle
• a second house yielded an AK-47 assault rifle, a pistol, 446 rounds, 42 magazines, a radio and other military equipment
• a third house yielded a hunting rifle, a pistol and two rounds
• a fourth house yielded 178 rounds of various calibers, a gas mask, two radios and other weapons equipment
• an unoccupied house yielded another 30 rounds of various calibers and five shell casings from long guns

In total, that comes to 656 rounds of ammunition, plus 42 magazines and five shell casings. Police did not say whether anyone had been placed in detention.

A String of Operations Since Late July

The Zubin Potok searches are not an isolated event. The municipality has been at the center of intensified police and prosecutorial activity since late July, during which three Serbs suspected of war crimes were arrested, alongside other detentions and searches.

Parallel investigations are underway into people missing from the war period. In Jabuka, the remains of four people were exhumed on August 3, with official confirmation following the next morning. Their identities were not known at the time, and the remains were sent for forensic analysis. Investigative work also continues in Mala Kaludra, the first site discovered, and the Special Prosecution said on August 4 that the investigation had expanded to a third location.

A week later, the string of events took a disputed turn. On August 11, Nenad Raskovic, a resident of Dren, ended up injured in a hospital in North Mitrovica, from where he was transferred for further treatment in Belgrade. He claims that after multiple visits to his house in search of weapons, Kosovo Police officers physically assaulted him, then took him away in handcuffs into the woods, tied him to a tree and beat him. The Kosovo Police Inspectorate has opened a preliminary investigation. Some media outlets in Pristina published footage of weapons they claim were found near his house, but official institutions have not confirmed ownership.

Operations continued afterward. On August 14, police searched Oklac and once again Dren, where they found a Kalashnikov rifle and questioned two people, and on August 15 they worked in the Brnjak and Strmac area, alongside the searches whose inventory was released.

Two Faces of the Same Municipality

While arrests, searches and exhumations pile up in Zubin Potok, the same municipality is also the site of a different kind of institutional presence. The Ministry for Communities and Returns said on August 4, the same day the prosecution expanded its investigation, that Minister Nenad Rasic had delivered agricultural equipment to the Kasalovic, Joksimovic and Manojlovic families. The program is funded by the ministry, in cooperation with the German international cooperation organization GIZ and the humanitarian association Mother Teresa.

Rasic said on the occasion:

The greatest value of any project is when support reaches those who truly need it. Our goal is to support hardworking households and show that institutions stand by people who contribute to the development of their communities through their work.

Three days later, on August 7, equipment was also delivered to the Mihajlovic family in Ugljare and the Djurovic family in Donji Jasenovik. The same program was carried out in Leposavic and Socanica, and south of the Ibar in Strpce, Gracanica, Klokot, Partes, Ranilug and Novo Brdo.

The political backdrop, meanwhile, remains sharp on both sides. Rasic’s Freedom, Justice and Survival Party demanded on August 12 an “urgent and complete investigation” into the Dren case, warning that any abuse of police authority must be sanctioned. The Serb List filed a constitutional complaint with Kosovo’s Constitutional Court against the Supreme Court ruling, challenging the mandate Rasic’s list won in the elections.

Whether the weapons logged in Zubin Potok lead to a court outcome depends on the prosecutor’s decision in each of the five cases. No deadline has been announced.