UNMIK chief in K.Mitrovica to resign

Head of UNMIK's administration in K.Mitrovica, U.S. diplomat Gerard Galluci has tendered his resignation, B92 can confirm. Galluci's move was brought about by his dissatisfaction with the UN police operation on March 17 in Kosovska Mitrovica, said an international official. UNMIK chief in K.Mitrovica to resign UN headquarters in New York have not, however, accepted his resignation, said the same source. One of the Serb representatives in Kosovo, Oliver Ivanovic, has linked Galluci’s resignation with the events at the District and Municipal Court, deeming it to be a sort of subjective responsibility for something that will only later be known. “People of that rank, especially Americans, don’t resign voluntarily, it is the decision of their superior; I think it’s the American administration that have felt his role was not quite what it should have been. His opinions which seem pretty favorable to us, particularly on his departure, don’t have to be the real reason why he has had to leave the field." "Anyway, he is a man who’s had a lot of experience, and who’s worked in many crisis areas, so with such experience he cannot have made a mistake simply by chance, it could only have been planned,” ventured Ivanovic. Galluci is presently on vacation and will return next weekend to continue his work. The UNMIK official’s report to the UN Security Council, according to the Kosovo Serb leader, states that the badly planned operation to “bring back order and law in the north led to the disappearance of order and law.” “If, on some other day, the police had asked people to leave the building without any arrests, we might have had a victory without a price to pay,” Galluci’s report reads, which is critical of the fact that the operation on March 17 coincided with the anniversary of the ethnic violence against Serbs in Kosovo back in 2004.

UNMIK chief in K.Mitrovica to resign

UN headquarters in New York have not, however, accepted his resignation, said the same source.

One of the Serb representatives in Kosovo, Oliver Ivanović, has linked Galluci’s resignation with the events at the District and Municipal Court, deeming it to be a sort of subjective responsibility for something that will only later be known.

“People of that rank, especially Americans, don’t resign voluntarily, it is the decision of their superior; I think it’s the American administration that have felt his role was not quite what it should have been. His opinions which seem pretty favorable to us, particularly on his departure, don’t have to be the real reason why he has had to leave the field."

"Anyway, he is a man who’s had a lot of experience, and who’s worked in many crisis areas, so with such experience he cannot have made a mistake simply by chance, it could only have been planned,” ventured Ivanović.

Galluci is presently on vacation and will return next weekend to continue his work.

The UNMIK official’s report to the UN Security Council, according to the Kosovo Serb leader, states that the badly planned operation to “bring back order and law in the north led to the disappearance of order and law.”

“If, on some other day, the police had asked people to leave the building without any arrests, we might have had a victory without a price to pay,” Galluci’s report reads, which is critical of the fact that the operation on March 17 coincided with the anniversary of the ethnic violence against Serbs in Kosovo back in 2004.