“There was war in Afghanistan.
Here I don't see war ».
Daniel is a corporal in the Polish army and leads the unit called to reinforce roadside controls on the outskirts of Mitrovica.
A few meters from the checkpoint stands a majestic iron cross, which marks the 'border' - purely cultural - between the Serbian, Orthodox, and the Albanian, Muslim (but not only) Kosovo.
More than 100 protesters gathered here in July, one of the various clumps of unrest that broke out around the dispute over identity cards and car license plates - the former resolved, the latter still not.
NATO, through the KFOR mission, is discreetly strengthening its forces in the country.
Because the war, as Daniel says, is no more in Kosovo.
But you never know.
Not even two million people, four centuries of belonging to the Ottoman Empire, the limbo of autonomy within Yugoslavia, the war with Serbia, independence in 2008 and then the long march towards full sovereignty.
Kosovo, today, is still the great unfinished of the Western Balkans.
About half of the nations represented at the UN do not recognize it, Russia (with Belgrade, of course) in the lead.
And five of these are part of the European Union.
Not even the main Belgian mobile phone company has clear ideas, given that as soon as you cross the central bridge in Mitrovica, supervised by the Multinational Specialized Unit of the Carabinieri (MSU), the cell phone trills: "Welcome to Serbia" reads the message.
Too bad that the real border is 70 kilometers to the north.
In the midst of a kind of no man's land,
strewn with Serbian flags but formally under the control of Pristina: a few meters from the Brnjak checkpoint, where Kosovo officially ends, the Kosovar police have a kind of counter-customs.
In fact, local forces now have the primary responsibility for intervening in the event of unrest: an important step forward in the journey towards normality.
Secondly, there is the Eulex mission of the European Union.
And if there is a need, the safety net continues to be provided by NATO with KFOR troops (including the Carabinieri).
an important step forward in the journey towards normality.
Secondly, there is the Eulex mission of the European Union.
And if there is a need, the safety net continues to be provided by NATO with KFOR troops (including the Carabinieri).
an important step forward in the journey towards normality.
Secondly, there is the Eulex mission of the European Union.
And if there is a need, the safety net continues to be provided by NATO with KFOR troops (including the Carabinieri).