POLICE AGAINST A "POLICEMAN"?

Summary: Two events, a rape of an eighteen-year-old Albanian girl in Gnjilane by a policeman, and uncontrolled shooting in the capital of Kosovo by one of his colleagues, when a person was killed, and five were wounded, caused a new wave of fear in this space.

The District Public Prosecutor's Office demanded investigation against a policeman Slavisa Stankovic who killed one and wounded five citizens of Prishtina last week, on account of to, as stated, "founded suspicion that he committed the criminal offence of murder". This, as the local citizens most frequently call it - cowboy act of the Serb policeman, and the still unclarified rape of an eighteen-year-old Albanian girl in Gnjilane by a member of the local Secretariat of Internal Affairs, Nenad Perovic, are considered in Kosovo to be the greatest "provocations for the patience of the Albanians in Kosovo"...

The news about the investigation would have been just one in a row of routine information in the black chronicle of Kosovo, if it were not for charges against a policeman who was shooting at the inhabitants of Prishtina. Last week, about 18.30, in civilian clothes, the mentioned Slavisa Stankovic (born in 1969 in the village of Bostan, municipality of Novo Brdo, by trade a machinist, joined the police in 1992 after a training course for police officers) started his individual "action", with his official gun, in the busiest part of the city, downtown Prishtina. Stankovic cold-bloodedly shot the retired Alli Obrinyi (65) in front of the tea-house "Sahat kula" which is in the vicinity of the Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, and then continued his bloody walk in the direction of the monument to "Brotherhood and Unity", and in one of the main streets, near the Kosovo parliament building he started shooting at the panic-strecken passers-by and heavily wounded the twenty-year-old Jelena Cvorovic. Without stopping, behind the Central Post-Office in the Nikola Tesla street, he then wounded Nedmedin Govori (27) and Nusret Llatifi (42), both from Prishtina. In this part of the city where small shops are located, Stankovic first opened the door of Arton Redepi's shop and wounded him. Then he reloaded his gun, and hit a child who was passing by with its grip. Gradimir Brankovic was also wounded in his shop. Stankovic continued to move around freely, and in the next shop he threatened and forced two minors to lie down, but did not shoot them, and then started in the direction of the building of the former Assembly of Kosovo. A little later, he was arrested by his colleagues, or as stated in the Statement issued on the occasion by the Prishtina Ministry of Internal Affairs, "... by a quick intervention of the workers of the Secretariat of Internal Affairs in Prishtina, Slavisa Stankovic was arrested in the close vicinity of the scene of the crime"!

This crime extremely disturbed the citizens of the capital of Kosovo, especially since it happened just two days after the news that policeman Nenad Perovic had raped the Albanian Z.M., after he had forced her to go with him, as the media in Albanian language reported, under the pretext that she should have sought for her husband who had been running from the police for forging passports.

The Albanians in Kosovo have grown "accustomed" to the routine of crimes and maltreatment by the Serb police, but the latest crimes, and especially the way they were committed, seem to be extremely trying for their patience. First, policeman Stankovic performed his "death march" in the very heart of Prishtina and in the vicinity of the main buildings, where usually at least a dozen heavily armed police patrols can be seen. Second, shooting took place at the time of the religious holiday, Ramazan, just as the hour struck when believers are allowed to consume food and drink after their daily fast (Stankovic had chosen tea-houses and shops where people usually sit on such occasions). On the other hand, Serb media have just briefly informed about the event, and presented the whole affair as an incident with a "drunken" policeman, exactly like the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia in its Statement.

Chroniclers of the developments in Kosovo were reminded of a similar "incident" when a "drunken" policeman and officer, five years ago in the centre of Janjevo, a mixed environment where the Albanians and the Croats live, opened fire in front of the Catholic church and threatened a pregnant woman by putting the barrel of the gun in her mouth. This was happeneing at the time when the Serb police dissolved the autonomy in Kosovo and "pacified" it. The destiny of these shooting "drunkards" is a mystery, but for instance, last year when the policeman Boban Krstic shot "by mistake" the child of Fidan Brestovci who was in the car with his family, that employee of the Ministry of the Interior was not even punished. On the contrary, policeman Krstic was even promoted in the police hierarchy. His name was mentioned on the occasion of the murder of Ismail Reka from Kacanik in the local police station, who was as the superior officer the one who informed the family of the deceased that he had "jumped" from the fifth floor of the building.

So far there were various "incidents", but never could "mea culpa" be heard from the Serb authorities in Kosovo!

But, let us go back to the Stankovic case. The citizens of Kosovo commented on his crime in various ways. Even that the wounded Serb Brankovic was one of the old "disobedient" citizens of Prishtina, who has once stated for a newspaper that it was "shameful what the Serb police is doing to the innocent Albanians". According to the daily in Albanian language "Bujku", Brankovic said that it was not the case of a drunken policeman. Rumours are numerous, but it is a fact that Brankovic has personally felt the actions of the "efficient police".

The political parties of the Albanians have also reacted with indignation to the uncontrolled shooting of the policeman Stankovic, and Mr. Ibrahim Rugova, President of the most influental party, the Democratic Alliance of Kosovo and the leader of the Kosovo Albanians warned that this was inevitable considering the enormous copncentration of police in Kosovo. That is why, at his regular press conference, he appealed once more to the international community to take Kosovo under its auspices. Respectable Kosovo analysts remind of their warnings that, instead of a legal state in Kosovo allegedly promoted by the Serb political circles, a police state is actually operating here, among whom quite frequently, there are frustrated men who have spent some time on the battlefields of Bosnia or Croatia.

Regardless whether Stankovic had committed the crime intentionally and "drunk", or really drunk and unintentionally, it cannot free the Serb police in Kosovo of the responsibility, which has thrown out from its ranks all its colleagues Albanians, and which justifies all its actions as necessary for "establisng order and peace"!

But, it seems there is neither order, nor peace here. Unfortunately, now even the unfortunate Serb citizens, the wounded Brankovic and young Jelena Cvorovic have felt it!

And concerning the raping in Gnjilane, which has not been resolved yet, and no "official" information has been issued concerning it, it is emphasezed that this form of maltreatment the rich menu of discrimination and violation of human nad ethnic rights of the Albanians has not been applied yet. Among respectable Albanian intellectuals there were interpretations that Serb political and police organs are aware of the most sensitive point of the patriarchal Albanians and that it is a dangerous "adventure", reminding at the same time of the newspaper titles of a few years ago about raping of local women of Serb origin always by "an unknown Albanian separatist".

Yljber HYSA AIM Pristina