Drecun Warns of OVK Threat as KFOR Scales Back
The head of parliament's Defense Committee warns a Hague verdict against former OVK leaders could turn Albanian anger toward Serbs, just as KFOR announces a smaller presence in northern Kosovo.
Milovan Drecun, head of the parliamentary Committee on Defense and Internal Affairs, has warned that a guilty verdict against former leaders of the so called OVK (Kosovo Liberation Army) in The Hague could see the accumulated anger of Kosovo’s Albanian population directed at Serbs, particularly in northern Kosovo and Metohija. He made the statement to RTS, and it was carried by the Tanjug news agency and the B92 news portal.
The warning follows a threat from Nasim Haradinaj, a member of the presidency of the OVK veterans’ association. According to both sources, Haradinaj said that if Hashim Thaci and three other former OVK commanders are not acquitted by the Specialist Chambers in The Hague, Kosovo and Metohija, North Macedonia and Albania would “burn.” Drecun himself, in the quote RTS carried, listed a different set of territories, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro. The gap between the paraphrased threat and the direct quote appears in both sources, and neither explains it.
“When someone from that veterans’ association of the terrorist OVK threatens that Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro will burn, that is absolutely in line with the goals the OVK had,” said Drecun, pointing to what he described as the oath OVK members once took, one that spoke of liberating supposedly occupied territories and forming a single, ethnically pure Albanian state.
A Smaller KFOR Presence Adds to the Risk
Drecun singled out as a particularly dangerous factor the fact that all of this is unfolding just as KFOR announces it will scale back its presence at some locations in northern Kosovo. He recalled that President Aleksandar Vucic, acting on behalf of Serbia, had earlier asked for a number of Serbian security force members to be allowed to return, and that the request was turned down on the grounds that it was not necessary.
He said a new response has now arrived, this time in the form of an announcement that part of the security work, including protection of Serbian cultural and religious heritage sites such as the Visoki Decani monastery, could be handed over to the so called Kosovo security structures instead of staying with KFOR.
Drecun called this a worrying development and said KFOR should stay true to its mandate and protect those whose safety is under threat.
Why Is the Hague Verdict a Security Issue?
The Defense Committee head believes a campaign glorifying the OVK is currently mobilizing Albanian public opinion, especially its most extreme wing, and that this is already laying the ground for a reaction to a possible verdict. In his assessment, if Thaci is convicted, the resulting anger will not be directed at Prime Minister Albin Kurti or at KFOR, but at Serbs.
Drecun added that Kurti, in his words, is already preparing the ground by stoking anti Serb sentiment, among other things by digging up alleged mass graves and finding weapons in the possession of individual Serbs he accuses of war crimes from the 1990s.
He also addressed a statement by former special envoy Richard Grenell, who said the West wants Thaci freed because he is, in Grenell’s assessment, politically useful to Kosovo. Drecun called that argument unacceptable, saying it would amount to selective justice for those who show a willingness to cooperate.
Incidents Along the Administrative Line
Drecun also pointed to long standing security problems along the administrative line with central Serbia, saying armed groups are stealing timber, opening fire on Serbian security force members and breaking into homes in border villages. He attributed this to the fact that KFOR, in his words, has never fully secured the administrative line.
He also warned that any advance of armed formations from Pristina toward the administrative line, something suggested by the planned formation of a so called gendarmerie, could further destabilize southern central Serbia, where the Raska Polimlje area still has an Albanian population holding extreme political views.
Srpske vesti previously reported that an acquittal for Thaci would not automatically mean his release from custody, given how long he has already spent in The Hague. The verdict from the Specialist Chambers on OVK war crimes is still pending, and no date for its announcement has been officially released.
