Faton Hamiti describes how the police station in Kosovo where he worked as a language assistant moved from being predominantly staffed by U.N. Police officers to having mostly Kosovo Police Service officers. He explains that the first members of UNPOL to arrive in 1999 were well accepted, but they later encountered difficulties due to political issues, lack of cooperation from the population and differences in police techniques among the international officers that were training the KPS. He explains in detail the complex process of transferring power and responsibility from the UNPOL to the KPS, and how the complicated status of Kosovo reflected on policing. He also gives many accounts of his experience while patrolling with the police.
Case Study: Building the Police Service in a Security Vacuum: International Efforts in Kosovo, 1999-2011
Full Interview
At the time of this interview, Faton Hamiti was the administrative assistant in the Office of the Police Commissioner of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. He initially worked as a journalist in a daily newspaper in Kosovo before the war and then became a language assistant with UNMIK, first with a U.N. Police patrol and later at the police-station level. In 2006 he started working with the deputy police commissioner for operations, and in 2008 he was assigned as personnel/administrative assistant to the police commissioner.