Kosovo 2: On the "Austerlitz" bridge, the 3rd RIMA watches

18th January 200817th May 2016 Nicolas Gros Verheyde

(BRUSSELS2) Mitrovica. The 3rd marine infantry regiment of Vannes begins to take up residence at the “Concession”, the building which overlooks the main bridge of Mitrovica and also serves, incidentally, as a cultural center and… a nightclub for the inhabitants! “Section by section, we come to take instructions from our counterparts in the Franco-German brigade,” explains Lieutenant Léo Suret, who has just arrived. Before taking over, officially scheduled for the end of January, the guard is thus ensured in duplicate for several days. “Which gives us all the cards in hand, to master the solution well afterwards”. For this young lieutenant, fresh from Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan, the school for army officers, and having just arrived in the regiment, "it's a chance" to leave so quickly on an overseas mission at such a crucial moment.

The "spotlights on us". The former Serbian province of Yugoslavia, placed under the provisional administration of the UN, could indeed proclaim its independence in February or March. And the whole question will be how the Serb minority in Kosovo will react. “We know that all the spotlights are on us. explains the lieutenant. The Ibar river which separates Mitrovica in two, mainly the Serbs to the north, the Albanians to the south, marks a kind of impalpable border. And the main bridge of Mitrovica, renamed by the French “Pont Austerlitz”, is “symbolic. “If it is not the only bridge, “it is the most sensitive because it brings the two communities directly into contact”. The men of the 3rd Rima will also validate their training started in Brittany, "crowd control", on the ground, with the gendarmes and carabinieri, Italians.

"Do not trust the apparent calm". The Franco-German Brigade which holds the ground has, in fact, warned him. Do not trust the apparent calm. “It can be quiet. It gets tense in the morning and it catches fire in the afternoon”. Monitoring is therefore daily. First of all visually, from the top of the roof, where we have a direct view of the bridge and its surroundings; then, thanks to the permanently pointed cameras and the control screens. Finally, daily patrols – sometimes by minus 10 or 20° – make it possible to feel the pulse of the population. All the difficulty of this mission is, precisely, not to be surprised. The biggest challenge, explains Lieutenant Suret: “motivating men and avoiding monotony”.

(article published in Ouest-France)