Ethnic cleansing of Serbs in Kosovo, March 17 and 18, 2004

On March 17 and 18, 2004, “Sven” and his two Norwegian rifle companies fought like lions to protect Serbian life in the Serbian enclave Čaglavica just south of the center of Priština. Sven shot and killed two Albanian extremists and probably killed many more with his SISU, an armored personnel carrier. 

Now, 20 years later, the Serbian public broadcaster, RTS (Radio Television of Serbia) has told this story properly, about the Serbian victims and the soldiers who fought Albanian extremists to protect the Serbian population of Kosovo and Metohija, the full name of the Serbian province. Turn on the subtitles to see the English translation:

My role in this movie has been to connect RTS with the Norwegian hero, “Sven” and RTS flew him to Belgrade, and my job has also been to put Serbian subtitles on this interview.

It has been a real joy and a privilege to work with documentary director Slađana Zarić, the most acknowledged documentary maker in Serbia. She is 100 percent professional in everything she does, and the whole team is awesome. Vesna Ilić and Milena Miletić are also important members of Slađana’s team to make my street Serbian into what is according to the spirit of the Serbian language.

On the YouTube channel Merila Vremena, you can see all of Slađana’s over 30 documentaries, in several language versions

As a former NATO officer in Kosovo in 2000, it is not at all pleasant to be confronted with my naive attitudes and statements, and this is why I will spend the rest of my life giving my public apology.

But when I failed, it gives me great comfort to know that there were Norwegian heroes during this ethnic cleansing of Serbs the dramatic days in 2004. Of course, Sven is not his real name, and if Albanians in Norway knew his name, it would be a danger to himself and his family.

Below, you can read some of Sven’s dramatic story, first when he had to order the Norwegian army column to drive over an Albanian mob in the village of Obilić outside Priština, probably killing some of them. Then we hear how he arrived in Čaglavica, he shot and killed two Albanians who tried to force themselves onto him with a truck:

In Obilić we just drove into the town, and then we were stopped by many Albanians on the street, around 200 people with flags blocking the road.

I drove first in the escort, and I was the first to be stopped.

The carrier was swarmed by Albanians trying to get inside. So we had to press on and drive through the crowd.

When we stopped in front of the crowd, he who was the company commander said that we should turn around, because there were so many people in the crowd. I didn’t listen to him, and said that we just had to go through the crowd because they could destroy our vehicle cut the brakes, brake hoses and so on and then the vehicle is broken.

I ordered the driver, “speed straight ahead, 40”. Then he sat and cried, and I felt that we ran over other people, I felt that on the vehicle.

The driver got a bit of a shock as there were so many people trying to get into the carrier.

When I told him to start again, he sat and cried, really, but he did what he was told.

The Albanians wanted to scorch the whole Čaglavica village, burn down the whole town. We understood that this was ethnic cleansing, they wanted to cleanse all the Serbs
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In Čaglavica we were initially a platoon in addition to the Swedes who were there. So there weren’t many of us from KFOR really, 3-500 max, but 10,000 Albanians came so we got to drive. I have never seen so many people at once walking on a highway. It was a strange experience.

I had a job as a clearing team leader, and several times I had to take six or seven soldiers out of the shield group with me and take the worst ones who were aggressive.

But there were so many people that it was like walking straight into a brick wall of people, Albanians on the other side of the soldiers. There were so many people that it was simply awful.

Many Norwegian soldiers, myself included, were knocked unconscious on the ground because so many stones were thrown. It hailed over the castle of shields with stones

Then I’m talking about large blocks of brick and everything that came flying, that hit me in the face. If we hadn’t had bulletproof visors, I would probably have been disfigured for the rest of my life. You just went straight down.

Many, 20-30 soldiers were constantly injured. We fought with fists, hand to hand combat, and we were not at a distance when we fought. I trained with these soldiers for two years, so I knew all the soldiers. But when I see the young soldiers fighting so badly that they kill other people, that they take the lives of others, it makes a strong impression.

About the Albanian blue truck with the two brothers:

But I thought I didn’t want to shoot it I thought then. But I saw the car trying to pick up the acceleration, pick up speed, even though he had to brake because he got Albanians in front of the car, so he couldn’t pick up speed.

He drove little by little, by little. Finally I thought: oh, now he’s close. This is not going to work, I thought. The soldiers did not see the truck because they are standing with their shields and wearing protective masks in front of their faces. So they don’t see the truck.

So I thought: Should I or should I not shoot? I asked myself that question several times, should I shoot, or should I not shoot.

But in the end the truck was right next to the soldiers, and then I had no other choice. Those boys, those soldiers, I had to shoot.

I fired a warning shot over the car before I got effective fire on the driver himself. So yes, it was done.

When I shot it was also a special experience. Shooting at a man sitting in a truck, I didn’t see if I hit him, even though I saw that they went through the window, I saw that he was just sitting and shaking.

I didn’t see that I hit him. My brain didn’t get confirmation that I hit. I fired until I saw him turn to the side and fall out the side window.

When the driver fell out of the car on its side, I think he pulled the steering wheel so the whole car turned to the right of me and down a small hill.

But at the same time as the car was very close to the soldiers, an Albanian managed to pass through the legs or on the side of the boys, the shield. He was kneeling and looking at me when I first saw him. He was going to take me.

Then I remember that I fired two shots straight into his chest. Then he just fell straight down to the ground. Then he was pulled out by the Albanians where the shield castle stood.

He was also wearing a red sweater I remember, and I also remember the look on his face, from anger to pain.

Sven and two of his fellow soldiers received the highest honors from the Norwegian army for their bravery, and the mother of the two Albanians Svenn shot wrote a letter to KFOR, the NATO-led force in Kosovo and Metohija, regretting that her sons tried to kill Serbian civilians and Norwegian soldiers.

While Wikipedia has a fairly balanced article about the ethnic cleansing, 2004 unrest in Kosovo, Slađana’s documentary Dosije Kosovo – Pogrom is the most comprehensive documentation in English about the Albanian ethnic cleansing of Serbs in 2004.

After Serbia was forced to sign United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 in 1999, KFOR and UNMIK, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, took responsibility for security and law in Kosovo and Metohija. We who ruled Kosovo continued to repeat standards before status, standards before status, but in the end, the Western countries decided to reward the Albanian ethnic cleansing of Serbs with state recognition for the Priština-regime.

On March 14, RTS aired a 16-minute teaser to the main documentary, and the focus here was to tell Sven’s story. Here Sven speak how he considered whether to shoot or not to shoot the driver of the Albanian truck. He is speaking in Norwegian, with Serbian subtitles. There are no English subtitles in this video:

On many levels, KFOR and the international community failed these days. They did not have sufficient intelligence, and many nations of KFOR were cowards in the face of the Albanian bullying violence. For more analysis, the report is written by Lt. Col. Egil Daltveit, former defense attaché at the Norwegian Embassy in Belgrade, is very useful: The Riots of March 2004 in Kosovo: a Failure of the International Community.

See also the video below, with an interview with the Norwegian battalion commander, Colonel Aril Brandvik on Norwegian state TV, NRK, and some of the soldiers who fought in Čaglavica. I put English subtitles on this video.

If you understand Norwegian, you can listen to and interview I did with Sven a few years ago.

Intervju med den norske helten i Čaglavica by Kristian Kahrs

Norwegian interview with the Norwegian hero in Čaglavica, read more inhttp://sorryserbia.com/2015/norwegian-heroes-caglavica/

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Kristian Kahrs describes himself as a former NATO aggressor and warmonger in Kosovo, turned into a warrior for peace, democracy, and freedom of speech. Kristian is a Norwegian living in Belgrade, Serbia, and there is more about him on his website ohrabrenje.com, the Serbian word for encouragement, where you can sign up for his newsletter. Also, follow Kristian on Gab, Telegram, VK, and his Duran Locals profile.

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