Number of Serbs recruited to Kosovo Police Not Decreasing

Kosovo police said that in 2014, over 5 percent of applicants were Serbs, while this year there were about 5 percent (4.91 percent).

“Based on statistics and the percentage of applicants from the Serb community notes a consistent interest of this community to join the Kosovo Police”, police said.

“The interest [to join force] has been almost proportional” with the number of Serbs living in Kosovo as a percentage of the general population”, police insisted.

The force has over 8,600 members, including uniformed and administrative staff.

“The Serb community's participation in the Kosovo Police is over 11 percent”, Kosovo Police said.

But Mentor Vrajolli, a senior researcher at the Kosovo Centre for Security Studies, suggested that many Serbs have joined the Kosovo Police by an agreement between Belgrade and Pristina to undo the parallel security structures controlled by Serbs who previously existed in Kosovo.

“A large number of them have been recruited on the basis of implementing the agreement between Kosovo and Serbia to undo parallel structures when members of these structures joined the Kosovo Police”, Vrajolli told BIRN.

Vrajolli said Kosovo institutions have failed to work in the direction of improving the image of Serbs serving in the Kosovo Police.

“especially in the northern part of Kosovo, I have noted that Serb members of the Kosovo Police have been offended by [local] society; they are seen as people who do not work for the [Serb] community's interests”, Vrajolli said.

“Consequently, there is no enthusiasm among these [force] members, they work more for wages than to provide services as members of the Kosovo Police, he added.

Media in Kosovo and Serbia have recently reported that some Serb members of the multiethnic Kosovo Security Force have quit their jobs, while Kosovo politicians blame Belgrade for presuming Serb pressure to quit.

Kosovo Security Force Minister Rrustem Berisha confirmed in July that the force had received requests from several Serb members to leave.

“After the ministry's assessments, these demands are due to the intentional attacks on the Kosovo Security Force, members of the Serb community are trying to undermine the achievements and development of the Kosovo Security Force, as well as its image as the most reliable security force in the country for the years”, Berisha said at a press conference.

Vrajolli suggested that the Kosovo Security Force be viewed by Belgrade as more a state institution, and therefore “press on Serb KSF members is greater than on Kosovo Police members”.

He also urged Kosovo institutions to make more efforts to win over the country's ethnic minorities.

There should be investments in encouraging the integration of communities”, he said.

The “cannot be surprising if Serb members leave, as the government is not working to improve their image within their community”, he added. /Call. com