BRUSSELS: The head of the EU’s police mission to Kosovo says it will deploy even in the restive north, dismissing hopes among the Serb minority there that the breakaway Serbian province could itself split in two.

The police and justice mission, aimed at easing Kosovo’s transition to independence, has already been branded an occupational force by the Serb minority living there.

While its deployment will get underway next week, the mission “will not come into action for four months, around mid-June,” mission head Yves de Kermabon said in Brussels.

That leaves time to see “how the situation evolves,” added the retired French general who commanded Nato KFOR forces in Kosovo in 2004-2005.

Serbia and the Serb Kosovo minority are vehemently opposed to independence for the tiny, mountainous province of some two million people, which they consider the cradle of their culture and religion.

Last week the European Union announced it had withdrawn staff preparing for the mission from Kosovo’s divided northern city of Mitrovica following violent protests by the Serb minority.

Kermabon, who won’t himself head to Kosovo until May or June, said he could understand the heated reactions from some quarters to Kosovo’s independence announcement last week, which also included violent scenes in Belgrade.

“We need to wait a little, to see how our politicians can re-establish links,” with the Serb authorities and “see what we can do on the ground”.

It may later be necessary to alter the size or scope of the mission, he added.

A reinforcement of the mission is already under consideration.

According to the current plans the mission will consist of 1,800 police, jurists and customs officers to be deployed throughout Kosovo, including the north. An “emergency” plan would allow that figure to rise to 2,200, said Kermabon.

He said he hoped for multiple “contacts” between now and June, including with the Kosovo Serbs and Serbian authorities — to permit his mission to operate in the best possible, and most peaceful, circumstances.

“This mission is aimed at protecting the minorities, protecting freedom of movement, protecting heritage sites and so that everyone can live in peace in Kosovo.

“It’s hard to believe that the goal wouldn’t be accepted by everyone.” Kermabon recalled that in December “no one was opposing this mission, not even the Russians and the Serbs. On the contrary they were calling for it,” he said.

Even if the conditions for the mission are not ideal, he insisted that the mission will nonetheless need to be put in place “to gradually re-establish confidence.” Kermabon added that it was “inconceivable” that the disgruntled Serbian minority in Kosovo would in turn secede from the breakaway province.

“The international community has repeatedly said that Kosovo is indivisible,” he said.

The mission, the EU’s biggest and most ambitious of its kind, consists of a political entity to supervise the transfer of powers and an operational entity to work with local police, justice and customs officials.

A third element comes from the European Commission, focusing on long-term reform and economic development with a view to eventual EU membership.

In launching the mission, the EU officially appointed Kermabon to head it, and named Dutch envoy Pieter Feith as special EU representative to Kosovo.

For now the French general whose military career took him to Cambodia, Central Africa and Bosnia, remains confident. One reason he was picked for the job is because he knows the terrain so well.

He said he knows the Kosovo leaders “and they know me well too. Without wishing to sound arrogant I think I have a certain fund of confidence I can draw on in Kosovo, thanks to what I managed to achieve during two years there (as the head of KFOR). It’s that capital that I wish to invest,” he said.—AFP