KFOR General Daniels Visits Ibar Bridge Troops in Mitrovica
KFOR's chief of staff visited troops stationed on the Ibar bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica, a day after the mission denied that its revised deployment means handing responsibility to Kosovo Police.
Brigadier General Chad Daniels, KFOR’s chief of staff, visited troops deployed on the main Ibar bridge in Kosovska Mitrovica on Friday, August 29. The visit came a day after the NATO mission’s command had to explain, for the second time in a week, what “optimizing” its presence at one of the most sensitive spots in Kosovo actually means.
KFOR said Daniels spoke on the ground with members of the Multinational Specialized Unit (MSU), made up of Italian carabinieri, and with Liaison and Monitoring Teams (LMTs). “MSU personnel contribute to KFOR’s visible and mobile security presence and readiness,” Daniels said, adding that the liaison teams keep regular contact with local communities and in doing so contribute to the mission’s situational awareness of the security environment.
The visit comes as KFOR’s deployment is shifting more visibly at this bridge than anywhere else in Kosovo. The Ibar bridge, closed to vehicle traffic since 1999, divides Kosovska Mitrovica into a northern part, home to Serbs, and a southern part with an Albanian majority. In early August, the permanent carabinieri post on the bridge’s northern side, which had stood there for years, was removed. Instead of holding a fixed position, MSU vehicles, commanded by Colonel Gianfranco Di Fiore, have since patrolled back and forth between the northern and southern sides.
On August 10, KFOR announced for the first time that a “gradual transition” of the permanent presence on the bridge was under way. Fifteen days later, on August 25, a new statement followed in which the mission tried to close off room for ambiguous readings: the optimized deployment, it said, is not a transfer of mandate or responsibility to Kosovo Police. “As KFOR continues to optimize its presence, the process remains gradual and conditions based,” Daniels repeated in the August 29 statement.
The day after the August 25 statement, Di Fiore spoke from the same bridge. “Commitment, readiness and responsibilities remain firm,” the MSU commander said, adding: “As security conditions evolve, these capabilities become even more important.”
Is KFOR Handing the Bridge to Kosovo Police?
Pristina’s reading of events runs counter to what KFOR itself is saying. Then acting Interior Minister Djeljal Svecla presented the removal of the permanent post as the start of “transferring responsibility for security on the bridge” to Kosovo Police. KFOR has not confirmed that reading, and explicitly rejected it in its August 25 statement. An earlier attempt by Albin Kurti to secure “full control” of the bridge for Kosovo Police in talks with then KFOR commander General Ozkan Ulutas also failed to produce such an agreement.
Belgrade has watched the gap between these interpretations with suspicion since early August. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic wrote to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte asking that the bridge not be opened to traffic, a position he has not changed since.
The question of who decides on opening the bridge to vehicles remains separate from the question of security presence on it. In this latest round of statements, KFOR again said opening the bridge falls outside its mandate and is a decision for the European Union and institutions in Pristina to make. Until that decision comes, the bridge stays closed to vehicles, while the carabinieri deployment on it, judging by the pace of changes since early August, keeps shifting in steps of a few days at a time.
