Cover-Up Claims Shadow Unsolved Murder of Kosovo Serb Politician

Three years ago, on January 16, when unknown perpetrators fired six bullets into the body of Kosovo Serb opposition party leader Oliver Ivanovic in front of his office in the town of Mitrovica, people in Serbia and Kosovo were stunned, while Western diplomats feared that the murder of another politician in the Balkans could end the fragile dialogue to normalise relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

The murder of Ivanovic, the leader of the Freedom, Democracy, Justice party, who was known as a moderate Kosovo Serb politician, cast a dark shadow in Serbia, reminding many of the 2003 assassination of Zoran Djindjic, who was Serbia's first prime minister after the overthrow of authoritarian leader Slobodan Milosevic.

The assassination appeared to be a professional hit and political leaders in Belgrade and Pristina promised to solve the case as soon as possible, while also using it as an opportunity to take rhetorical potshots at each other.

In July 2018, Kosovo's then president, Hashim Thaci, promised "concrete results that that will cause many headaches, both in Kosovo and in Belgrade". A few days later, Thaci's Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic claimed that Belgrade had "operational knowledge" about the case and even named several ethnic Albanians as potential suspects.

Oliver Ivanovic casts his vote in municipal elections in Mitrovica in November 2013. Photo: EPA/DJORDJE SAVIC.

However, three years after Ivanovic's death, the case is far from solved. Belgrade is keeping its investigation secret and has not been cooperating with Pristina, as Serbia refuses to recognise Kosovo as an independent state or work with its police or judiciary.

Meanwhile Pristina has indicted six suspects, all of them Serbs, but there...