The document below is an UNMIK Police report prepared on the events leading up to and on the day of March 17, 2008. It should be read in conjunction with the prior piece. I was kept in the dark about UNMIK HQ's planning for re-taking the Court. Suspecting something was afoot, I pressed for confirmation and was finally given a briefing the night before the action by the UNMIK Police Regional Command in Mitrovica. They had by then been superseded by UNMIK HQ. They joked that the entire plan was simply to go and arrest Serb thugs. Indeed, UNMIK HQ had disregarded our warnings about the likely violence that would surround any use of force against the Courthouse and UNMIK Police (and KFOR) was woefully unprepared for events that day. I later learned that the initial seizure of the Court appeared to have been allowed by UNMIK police sent by Pristina HQ to guard the building. I believe that the UNMIK Pristine leadership provoked the entire sad episode. None of this is reflected in the police report which apparently made it into my hands on May 5, 2008.
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