NATO peacekeeping forces and the UN are turning a blind eye to Serb paramilitaries suspected of war crimes operating in the northern Kosovan city of Mitrovica, international sources based in the province alleged yesterday. Albanian hardliners in the rest of Kosovo were said to be also treated with immunity.
The prime suspect under investigation by Kfor and the UN police in Mitrovica is Mr Oliver Ivanovic, a local political leader who styles himself the unelected mayor of the Serb-dominated north of the city.
"There is an intelligence operation being run on Ivanovic," claimed one senior international official, who spoke on strict condition of anonymity.
"It's about who he's being backed by, who's paying him, the war crimes he's been involved in, and his history in the war. Why he's not being touched is because it's political. UNMIK (the United Nations in Kosovo) and Kfor say it doesn't happen."
The Albanian mayor of southern Mitrovica, Mr Bajram Rexhepi, has claimed that Mr Ivanovic is behind organised Serb paramilitary activity in northern Mitrovica, where 12 Serbs and Albanians have died, and more than 100 been injured, including NATO peacekeepers, since the beginning of February.
Mr Ivanovic denies links to Serb paramilitaries, who operated in the region during the repression that lasted until NATO peacekeepers entered the province last June.
He claims that he does no more than organise local security structures made up of civilians, who assure the security of the local Serb population.
Known as "bridge-keepers", these gangs of Serbs control access to northern Mitrovica, keeping in touch with hand-held radios, and acting as a nucleus for anti-Albanian violence, while harassing journalists believed to have a pro-Albanian agenda.
International officials have also said that since January, an effective no-arrest policy has been run by the UN for Serbs in Mitrovica.
The officials criticised French NATO peacekeepers for their co-operation with Mr Ivanovic's force.
"There is no doubt that there exists a direct link between Ivanovic and the French," the senior official said.
"No arrests have been made against Serbs for incidents in which they were involved," he said, adding that after a multiple hand-grenade attack this week in northern Mitrovica which left 16 French soldiers injured, Mr Ivanovic's men physically prevented UN policemen from interviewing Serb victims in hospital. "The French have stood by and watched while UN vehicles were attacked, they have refused police access to at least two crime scenes, and they don't know how to do joint patrols on the ground."
"The co-operation between Kfor and UNMIK in Mitrovica is very close," a UN spokeswoman, Ms Susan Manuel, said in the regional capital, Pristina.
"The co-operation between Kfor and UNMIK in Mitrovica is appalling", said Ms Elizabeth Griffin, of Amnesty International. Earlier this week, Amnesty released a highly critical report of UN and NATO responses to the violence in Mitrovica. Ms Griffin also claimed that leading Albanian political leaders such as Mr Hacim Thaci are considered untouchable by the UN and NATO.
The senior French commander in Mitrovica, Gen Pierre de Saqui de Sannes, said recently he was "tired of being accused of having a pro-Serb agenda".
A French Kfor spokesman in Mitrovica, Comdt Philippe Maurin, said this week he was "scandalised" by press reports claiming that French troops blocked UN police from gaining access to the scene of Tuesday's grenade attack.