Who are Kosovo Serbs' unseen threats

Threats through placards placed in public spaces have occurred years ago for members of the Serb community not to become part of the Kosovo Police, while during this year Serb members of the Kosovo Security Force have been threatened to abandon that force.

Besim Hoti, deputy director of the Kosovo Police for the north region, speaking of Radio Free Europe, says police have no information that the so-called “arms of the north” are existing on Kosovo territory.

According to him, different individuals -- for purposes of different characters -- are called into organisations that are not existing and are unknown to public opinion. That is because, as he says, they make up for greater seriousness of the threat.

We have had threatening letters, in various situations, times earlier, to achieve the goals of political character or other personal character goals. However, for the existence of such organisations, which would be armed or risk security to such a level, Kosovo police have no information about their existence in the territory of the Republic of Kosovo. Not only by police, but not by other sources' approaches, we do not have official information about the existence of such an organisation”, Hoti said.

Randjel Neykik, Serbian connoisseur of political developments, tells Radio Free Europe that the placards with threats signed by the so-called “North weapon” are fact. Also, according to him, there have been many incidents in the north where firearms were used, bombs and other explosive devices were dropped, cars and real estate were burned, as well as verbal threats to individuals designated.

However, whether this has anything to do with an organised army or as they call it a paramilitary organisation, it does not exist. It's possible that someone is trying to send messages like this, that there is such an organization, but I absolutely don't believe in that. In view of that there were no specific shares that would indicate that there were formations of an army in the north. I'm almost quite sure that it doesn't exist, except that they are criminal groups, which have been and exist even today in the north”, Nokik stressed.

In the existence of a fantomic organisation, called “North weapon”, neither does Petar Miletic, another Serbian political connoisseur.

Personally, I don't believe in this, and I don't especially believe it's an army. That someone is called on it, that's more than obvious, but that after that might be a big organization, especially an army, I don't think. I can even say I'm sure there's no such thing”, Miletic stressed.

But have such threats been created through pamphlets and tablets, psychological effects on those who have been threatened?

Hoti says that in terms of psychological study, threats also carry the effects on individuals.

The “since the first generation of the Kosovo Police, when we have begun forming this organisation with UNMIK Police from 1999, there have been such threats addressed by letters, on behalf of various organisations, to individuals. Now, it's been more than 19 years and we're existing. It means that it is a matter of dealing with individuals or groups of individuals in the face of psychological pressures through these letters addressed to them. It is another issue of how they are accepted by different individuals or by specific groups”, Hoti said.

Nokia expresses the opinion that the psychological effect on the Serb community exists when it comes to criminal groups, but not from the possibility of the existence of a so-called organisation “Northerrmat”.

I think a little bit of who believes in this. Unless someone might want to send a message in a certain way, whether to representatives of the international community or perhaps to someone on the south side of the Iber River, that such formation could exist. But I don't believe there's”, Nokik said.

Despite that, Miletic says psychological effects from such threats are quite possible.

The “is possible, especially in those who have been threatened. It is possible that they have seriously understood these threats”, Miletic stressed.

In the Kosovo Security Forces there have been 103 members of the country's Serb community.