Attachments
I. Introduction and Mission priorities
1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Security Council resolution 1244 (1999), by which the Council established the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) and requested the Secretary-General to report at regular intervals on the implementation of its mandate. The report covers the activities of UNMIK, and developments related thereto, from 16 March to 15 September 2024.
2. The priorities of the Mission remain to promote security, stability and respect for human rights in Kosovo and in the region. In pursuit of its goals, UNMIK continues its constructive engagement with Pristina and Belgrade, all communities in Kosovo, and regional and international actors. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Kosovo Force continue to perform their roles within the framework of resolution 1244 (1999). The European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo maintains its presence, in line with the statement by the President of the Security Council of 26 November 2008 (S/PRST/2008/44) and the report of the Secretary-General of 24 November 2008 (S/2008/692). The United Nations agencies, funds and programmes work closely with the Mission.
II. Key political developments, including in the European Union-facilitated dialogue
3. During the reporting period, little progress was achieved in the implementation of European Union-facilitated agreements between Belgrade and Pristina. The Kosovo authorities undertook a series of actions that have affected the day-to-day lives of Kosovo Serbs and other non-majority communities. Pristina reiterated that those actions were intended to enforce the rule of law and did not specifically target Kosovo Serbs. Nevertheless, each time the Kosovo authorities implemented a measure that was not consulted and agreed upon with Kosovo Serb representatives and in the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, many Kosovo Serbs perceived it as antagonistic. Kosovo authorities also closed several institutions financed by Serbia and stated their intention to reopen the main bridge in Mitrovica to vehicle traffic, which has become a contested and symbolic issue.
4. The regulation of the Central Bank of Kosovo that determined the euro as the only legal currency for cash transactions continued to affect the economic and social rights of Kosovo Serbs and other non-majority communities, especially Kosovo Roma. Moreover, on 20 May, Kosovo police closed offices of the Serbian Postal Savings Bank in the four northern municipalities and separately searched offices of the treasury administration of the Government of Serbia in North Mitrovica. The Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija of the Government of Serbia, Petar Petković, asserted that this was an escalatory move and “a violent attack on dialogue”. In Pristina, the Minister for Internal Affairs, Xhelal Sveçla, said that the action had been taken “in order to establish legality”. Affected residents must now cross the administrative boundary line to withdraw their salaries, pensions and social assistance from the Government of Serbia.
5. The European Union facilitated six meetings in Brussels to try to resolve the dinar issue, but no agreement was reached. The last such meeting between the chief negotiators and the European Union Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues, Miroslav Lajčák, was held on 15 May.
6. On 5 August, Kosovo police closed all nine offices of the Post of Serbia in northern Kosovo for operating without a licence. The closures cut key financial and postal services to residents. These include money transfers; processing payments for Serbian institutions, including education and healthcare; the distribution of utility bills; and the disbursement of social benefit payments. Serbian-run post offices in the rest of Kosovo remain operational, albeit with heavily reduced services.
7. On 30 August, Kosovo police closed the four remaining municipal offices and a regional district office run by the Government of Serbia in northern Kosovo and searched a building at the Serbian-run hospital in North Mitrovica. The Kosovo government confirmed the closure, calling the offices “parallel, illegal institutions of local self-government” and stating that they had been operating in violation of the laws and constitution of Kosovo.
8. The European Union and the Quint (France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America) expressed concern and disappointment over the closures of the municipal and post offices and called on Pristina to refrain from unilateral actions. The United States and the European Union emphasized that matters relating to Serbian-run structures in Kosovo should be resolved within the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General stated that such actions were undermining efforts to maintain security, stability and peace.
9. In reaction to the closure of the institutions in northern Kosovo, on 6 September, activists from Serbia blocked all traffic at three crossing points between Serbia and Kosovo, except for medical vehicles and travellers carrying Serbian travel documents. The protesters demanded the withdrawal of Kosovo police from northern Kosovo, the release of arrested Kosovo Serbs, the arrest of “Kosovo Albanians who have committed crimes” and the sanctioning of the Kosovo government by the international community. They also called for UNMIK and the Kosovo Force to assert their role in the context of Security Council resolution 1244 (1999). On 6 September, Kosovo authorities shut down the affected crossing points and advised all residents of Kosovo to avoid transit through Serbia. The Serbian activists lifted their blockades on 7 September. The Kosovo authorities subsequently reopened the respective crossing points.
10. Following the successful petition to initiate the process to recall the mayors in the four northern Serb-majority municipalities, polls on the recall opened on 21 April. However, the votes failed to exceed the required threshold of 50 per cent of registered voters. The Serbian List party had announced a boycott, noting that the threshold for the recall votes to succeed was unrealistic due to concerns about the accuracy of the voters lists and the planned presence of cameras in polling centres. The European Union and the Quint expressed regret over the low turnout.
11. In the following weeks, the mayors of Zubin Potok and Zvečan/Zveçan in northern Kosovo, who had been working in alternative premises since the violent protests in May 2023, moved into the municipal buildings.
12. On 11 July, Kosovo Serb employees of the Serbian-financed institutions in Štrpce/Shtërpcë municipality in southern Kosovo received summonses to report to the police for questioning and were charged with “assault on the constitutional order”.
13. On 3 August, under orders of the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, Kosovo police arrested five Kosovo Serbs for alleged war crimes. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Serbia condemned the arrests, calling them part of a broader campaign with the aim of “intimidating and expelling the Serbian people”. The accused were held in pretrial detention for 30 days. A peaceful demonstration took place on 5 August in the village of Pasjane/Pasjan, where hundreds of Kosovo Serbs gathered to protest the arrests, criticized the international community for its inaction and asked for protection by the Kosovo Force.
14. The Kosovo government raised the issue of the opening of the main bridge in Mitrovica. On 30 May, the Kosovo police regional deputy commander said that the main bridge in Mitrovica would be open “very soon” for vehicle traffic, prompting members of the international community to reiterate that the issue should be discussed in the European Union-facilitated dialogue. The bridge over the river Ibar/Ibër has been closed for vehicles since 2014. In response, the Kosovo Force stated that it would continue to guarantee security and patrol on and around the main bridge and echoed calls for the issue to be agreed within the dialogue. On 17 July and 2 August, the Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, met with the Ambassadors of the Quint and the Head of the European Union Office in Kosovo and presented the government’s plan to reopen the bridge.
15. On 7 August, many Kosovo Serbs gathered peacefully in North Mitrovica to protest the plan to reopen the bridge. A public discussion organized by the North Mitrovica municipality on “interethnic cooperation, municipal counselling for community safety, cooperation between institutions and civil society” took place the following day but did not attract many Kosovo Serb participants. On the same day, an altercation between Kosovo police and the leaders of Serbian Democracy occurred, after contractors began painting over the colours of the Serbian flag in a public square in North Mitrovica. The leader of Serbian Democracy and his deputy were detained and released shortly thereafter.
16. On 11 August, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, warned that Pristina was planning to open the bridge by force and urged the Kosovo Force not to permit its “unilateral” opening. The Special Representative of the Secretary-General emphasized that “unilateral actions that could increase tensions, jeopardize stability and undermine trust among communities should be avoided”. On 13 August, when asked about the European Union’s proposal to include this issue on the agenda of the next dialogue meeting in Brussels, Mr. Kurti responded that the issue of the bridge had been resolved in 2016-2017 and that it “must be opened”. On the same day, over 400 women from the four northern municipalities submitted a letter to the Kosovo Force, urging it to not allow the bridge to be opened due to security concerns.
17. Against this backdrop, the European Union-facilitated dialogue continued to stagnate. On 17 March, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, marked the anniversary of the Agreement on the path to normalization of relations and its Implementation Annex, noting that there had been “very limited” progress by both parties in implementing their obligations.
18. On 26 June, Mr. Borrell chaired high-level bilateral meetings with Mr. Kurti and Mr. Vučić in Brussels aimed at paving the way for a trilateral meeting later. However, that meeting did not take place. Mr. Borrell afterwards said that Mr. Kurti was not ready for the trilateral meeting and had outlined three conditions for Pristina’s “further engagement in the broader normalization process”, namely: (a) formalize the Agreement through signatures; (b) withdraw the letter submitted on 13 December 2023 by the former Prime Minister of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, to the European External Action Service; and (c) hand over the perpetrators involved in the Banjska/Banjskë incident to Kosovo’s judicial authorities. According to Mr. Borrell, Mr. Vučić was willing to hold the trilateral meeting but was not ready to fully meet Mr. Kurti’s conditions, citing constitutional constraints, while indicating readiness to explore options.
19. A follow-up meeting of the chief negotiators with Mr. Lajčák was held on 2 July in Brussels, primarily to discuss finalizing the sequencing plan for the Implementation Annex of the Agreement. The discussions ended without progress.
20. On 13 September, Mr. Vučić announced a series of measures that Serbia would take in response to Pristina’s actions “against Serbian institutions”. He also cited several conditions required to advance the dialogue process with Pristina. In that regard, he called for the reintegration of Kosovo Serbs into the Kosovo police and judicial structures and requested the conduct of local elections in northern Kosovo. Furthermore, he called for the establishment of the Association/Community of Serb-majority Municipalities, the reopening of the closed Serbia-run financial and postal services and the withdrawal of Kosovo police special operations units from northern Kosovo. On 16 April, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recommended that Kosovo be invited to become a member of the Council of Europe, and that the organization would monitor Kosovo’s implementation of several commitments and obligations after its accession. The Parliamentary Assembly noted that establishing the Association/Community of Serb-majority Municipalities would be “an important step” to ensuring the protection of the rights of Kosovo Serbs and should be regarded “as a post-accession commitment”.
21. President Vučić had noted earlier that Serbia would consider leaving the Council of Europe if Kosovo were admitted to the organization and vowed to “fight” Kosovo’s membership bid. Subsequently, the spokesperson of the European Union External Action Service said that Serbia’s lobbying against Kosovo’s bid to join international organizations clearly violated the 2023 Agreement.
22. In anticipation of the meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe on 16 and 17 May, France and Germany stressed the importance for Pristina to make tangible progress towards the establishment of the Association/Community of Serb-majority Municipalities in the context of its application to join the organization. In a joint letter to Mr. Kurti, the Chancellor of Germany, President of France, and Prime Minister of Italy requested Kosovo to send the draft statute of the Association/ Community of Serb-majority Municipalities that had been proposed by the European Union to the Constitutional Court of Kosovo for review. It further specified that Mr. Kurti’s proposal to prepare a new draft statute to be sent to the Council of Europe for review “risked further undermining the European Union-facilitated dialogue”. Kosovo’s application to the Council of Europe remained pending.
23. Several restrictions on the freedom of movement were imposed both by Belgrade and by Pristina. On 17 April, hundreds of individuals from Kosovo, including Kosovo police officers, were halted for several hours at various Serbian border crossing points. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia announced that four people, including the Deputy Director of Kosovo Police, had been detained. All four individuals were released the following day. The President of the National Assembly of Serbia stated that the action had been intended to defend the constitutional order of Serbia. Mr. Kurti qualified the actions as “retaliation against Kosovo civilians” a day after the Parliamentary Assembly voted in favour of Kosovo’s membership in the Council of Europe. The spokesperson of the European Union External Action Service said that Belgrade’s “unilateral and uncoordinated actions” violated the 2011 Agreement on Freedom of Movement.
24. On 13 May, the Kosovo authorities prevented Patriarch Porfirije and seven other hierarchs of the Serbian Orthodox Church from entering Kosovo to attend the Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church at the Peć Patriarchate in the Pejë/Peć municipality. Kosovo authorities said that they had denied entry because “Serbia continues to violate the Brussels Agreement”. The Quint and the European Union qualified the decision contrary to the Ahtisaari Plan. On 26 June, Mr. Petković was denied permission to travel to Kosovo for the Serbian national holiday of Vidovdan.
25. On 9 May, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kosovo launched the process of replacing Serbia-issued driver’s licences for individuals residing in Kosovo with Kosovo-issued ones. The Ministry reported that 6,509 applications for new licences had been received, including 5,732 from northern Kosovo.
26. On 16 August, the President of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, announced that the next regular general elections in Kosovo would take place on 9 February 2025. This would be the first completion of a full electoral term since Kosovo’s unilateral declaration of independence in 2008.