The fight between the police and armed attackers on Sunday turned the peaceful village of Banjska, in the municipality of Zvečane in the north of Kosovo, into a war zone, the police and locals said yesterday in the first statements about the conflicts that shocked the region. Yesterday, for the first time after a four-day blockade, the Kosovo authorities allowed journalist teams to enter Banjska.
"On the main road, where you came, my policeman was killed. He was shot and killed. The entire area you see here was used to shoot at us and bombard us with mortar fire," Veton Eljsani, the police commander in the north of Kosovo, told Reuters.
"The investigation will take longer because we are interested in why this particular place was chosen and what was the goal of the attackers, what were they trying to achieve," said Elšani.
Kosovo authorities say dozens of armed men stormed an Orthodox monastery on Sunday before Kosovo police took control after clashes that left three attackers and a policeman dead. Subsequently, as the media reported, the body of another attacker was found.
Kosovo authorities claim that most of the attackers managed to sneak out of the monastery and escape.
A resident of Banjska, Radosav Marković, told Reuters that the locals experienced serious clashes and that it looked like a "state of war". "I am very optimistic that everything will be as before, that we will live without fear, lead a normal life and that we will not have to leave," he said.
"We are scared, we need someone to tell us what happened," a local woman told Radio Free Europe (RSE). "Even when there was a war, it wasn't like this, the first darkness and we're all in the house," she added.
Another resident said that he and his family were woken up by gunfire in the night from Saturday to Sunday. "It thundered from all sides," he told RSE. "We had no idea what was happening. I was just waiting for someone to break into the house. It is a horror”.
The police warned citizens to be careful when moving through Banjska and, for security reasons, to avoid mountainous areas, KoSSev reported. They also emphasized that despite the fact that the police operation in the village has officially ended, there is still a danger of unexploded explosive devices.
So far, three men have been charged with participating in the attack. No group has yet claimed responsibility or explained the motives behind the attack. The Special Prosecutor's Office in Kosovo announced yesterday that, due to a lack of evidence, they released four suspects yesterday.
There was little visible evidence yesterday of the scale of Sunday's fighting, other than scattered casings of automatic weapons ammunition. Heavily armed Kosovo police with rifles took up positions next to armored vehicles, Reuters reported.
Minister of Internal Affairs of Kosovo Dželal Svečlja announced yesterday that among the attackers killed in Banjska was Bojan Mijailović who, according to him, was one of Aleksandar Vulin's bodyguards during his visit in 2013.
"Yesterday, through video recordings, we witnessed the presence of the main criminal and leader of the terrorist action, Milan Radoičić. Meanwhile, today it was confirmed that one of the killed is Bojan Mijailović, the bodyguard of the head of the Serbian BIA, Aleksandar Vulin, during his visit to the Republic of Kosovo in 2013," Svečlja wrote on Facebook yesterday, repeating the accusations that the leader of the attack is the vice-president of the Serbian List, the largest party of the Kosovo of the Serbs, which has the support of Belgrade.
He assessed that this "proves that the state of Serbia is fully involved in that terrorist attack with the aim of destabilizing Kosovo", Beta reported.
Svečlja also published a paper yesterday which, as he said, was a confirmation given by the Serbian Army to the group regarding the handover of grenade launchers, which official Belgrade denied.
The KoSSev portal reported that Svečlja presented a paper that looks like a packing list from a box, that is, an alleged document that was issued from an army post with the markings M93.
The director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija in Belgrade, Petar Petković, denied and rejected this last night, as well as all previous statements by Svečlje about the armed conflict between the Serbs and the Kosovo police.
Petković called Svečlje's statements and announcements "lies", and stated that it is "totally untrue" that Serbs from the Serbian headquarters participated in the conflict in Banjska.
"For the fourth day, he continues to lie that Serbs from central Serbia took part in the events in the village of Banjska, which is completely untrue," Petković said in a statement.
He assessed that Svečlja's intention was "to accuse Belgrade of alleged involvement in those events" which, as he stated, "produced by Aljbin Kurti with his anti-Serb policy".
Petković denied that the paper published by Svečlja was "some kind of proof of the involvement of the Serbian Army in the events from Banjska".
He added that "it is not a paper about any kind of handover of a weapon", but rather an "ordinary technical sheet" and, as he stated, "it is not a reverse on the charge of the asset".
"Svečlja also lied about the deceased Serb in Novi Pazar, that Milan Radoičić was placed in the VMA (in Belgrade), that he confiscated an alleged Gendarmerie vehicle in Banjska," said Petković.
US Ambassador to Kosovo Jeffrey Hovenier said that the equipment confiscated by the Kosovo authorities, including rocket launchers, mines and an armored personnel carrier, is "military-grade equipment that is not available to the average citizen."
The United States concluded that the attack on Sunday was aimed at destabilizing the region and warned of a potential further escalation between the longtime enemies, Politiko reported yesterday. "We know that it was coordinated and sophisticated," said US Ambassador to Kosovo Geoffrey Hovenier for the Brussels portal. He said the gunmen appeared to have received military training.
"The amount of weapons suggests that this was serious, with a plan to destabilize security in the region," he added. Hovenier also said that the US has yet to determine whether Serbia is responsible for the attack, as claimed by Kosovo, but added that the equipment confiscated by the Kosovo authorities, including rocket launchers, mines and an armored personnel carrier, is "military-grade equipment that is not available to ordinary citizen".
He stated that the US has no reason to suspect that the weapons and other equipment that the Kosovo police presented at the press conference on Monday were not what was found at the scene.
If the connection of the state of Serbia with the attacks in Banjska or its role in sending the weapons found during the police operation on the territory of Kosovo is proven, many member states of the European Union (EU) are seeking the introduction of measures against Serbia, RSE's diplomatic sources stated, without specifying the number of countries involved. .
At the meeting of the Committee for Politics and Security, which consists of the ambassadors of the EU member states, the day before last, the newly emerging situation in Kosovo was discussed. "What happened on Sunday in the north of Kosovo, the amount of weapons that were found and the information that is constantly coming to us from the scene, is a game changer," said a source from the EU.
The meeting was also attended by the EU's special representative for dialogue, Miroslav Lajčak, as well as representatives of the European mission for the rule of law in Kosovo, EULEX. At this meeting, the member countries condemned the attack on the Kosovo police and asked to continue the investigation into what exactly happened in Banjska and to reveal all the facts. RFE/RL's sources, informed of the meeting, mentioned that the ambassadors of some member states demanded that the EU have a "balance" in its approach to Kosovo and Serbia. The demand for a balanced approach was present at various meetings at the EU level even before the attack in Banjska.
Namely, some diplomatic sources warned RSE earlier that "more than half" of the member states demanded from the EU mediator that Kosovo alone cannot be held responsible for the escalation of the situation in the north.
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