Balkan Peace Team - Kosovo/a, Monthly Report, October 1999
CONTENTS
- Women in Black Conference
- Richardson Institute Workshop
- Community Centre Project Assessment
- Oral History Project Assessment
II. OBSERVATIONS & IMPRESSIONS
- Minorities Update
- Political Prisoners Update
- Political Update
- KFOR Update
- Observations of the International Presence
III. VISITORS
I. WORK OF THE TEAM
BPT accompanied two Pristina activists to the Women in Black conference held in early October in Ulcinj on the Montenegrin coast. The three-day conference was attended by over 250 participants from several countries. Much of the conference was dedicated to talking about how the various participants had resisted the NATO bombing as well as listening to the stories of survival of women from Kosovo/a and Serbia. It was especially encouraging to see several first-time participants from various cities in central and southern Serbia who had become active during the NATO bombing campaign.
The Balkan Peace Team continued its collaboration with the Richardson Institute (RI) when Diana Francis of RI and Bob Neidhardt of Quaker Peace and Service visited Pristina to facilitate a workshop with Albanians on the topic of future dialogue possibilities in Kosovo/a on 12 and 13 October. In addition to assisting in the gathering of participants and other issues of logistics, one team member participated as an observer in the two-day workshop, which was attended by a small but honest and insightful group of people.
The participants spoke openly about their perceptions of the changed realities of Kosovo/a in this post-war period. One of the most important issues discussed over the two days concerned the issue of intra-ethnic intolerance; that is, the increasing social pressure that Albanians are experiencing within their own communities to refrain from protesting inter-ethnic intolerance and violence. The opinion was expressed by several participants that the development of a healthy civil society in Kosovo/a will be seriously inhibited if the restraints being placed upon the freedom of expression by some of the more radical voices among the Albanian populace were to continue unabated.
Also expressed by the participants was their perception of a collective Albanian need for a Serbian acknowledgment of the crimes committed over the past ten years as a prerequisite for forgiveness. The participants were in agreement that a peaceful, multi-ethnic Kosovo/a is realistically attainable but that it is contingent upon such a gesture on the part of the Serb leadership of the province.
Community Centre Project Assessment
The focus of much of the work engaged in by the team this month has been on assessing the feasibility of and determining the appropriate location and emphasis of the Balkan Peace Team's proposed community centre project.
The focus of the Balkan Peace Team's efforts in Serbia and Kosovo/a, up until the commencement of NATO's bombing campaign on 24 March 1999, had been on fostering contact and identifying possibilities for dialogue between students and activists in Belgrade and their ethnic Albanian counterparts in Pristina. Today, however, at least insofar as the Albanians of Kosovo/a are concerned, maintaining relations with Serbia simply are not a priority. The Balkan Peace Team's role in the region, therefore, has had to be re-evaluated and re-formulated to respond to the current reality of this post-war society.
Having evaluated the possibilities for future peace-building work in a Kosovo/a-specific context with feedback and assistance from local activists, the team is completing an assessment of the possibility of establishing a youth-oriented community centre in an ethnically mixed town. By founding a centre wherein young people from all communities can have access to locally identified needed services, the team hopes that interaction can begin at their own pace and that some basis of trust can begin to be developed.
In consultation with local contacts and local organizations such as the Mother Theresa Society and the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms, the team identified both the criteria to be employed during the assessment process (the community centre would be founded in a town/region where 1. the centre would be welcomed by the residents, 2. the centre would not be a duplication of the efforts of other agencies in the town/region, and 3. the centre would be located in an underserviced town/region) and four mixed-identity towns/regions wherein such a centre could become a useful tool for future peace-building while at the same time providing needed/wanted services for the local populace.
The towns/regions identified were Strpce/Ferijah, Dragas, Orahovac/Rahovec, and Kamenica. The team visited Strpce/Ferijah is September, and Dragas and Orahovac/Rahovec in October with Howard Clark of BPT's Coordinating Committee/Kosovo/a sub-group. The security situation in Kamenica is unstable; thus the team has decided that an assessment of this town is ill-advised. While in each of these towns/regions, the team met with a variety of local organisations and community leaders as well as several representatives of international agencies. The team's preliminary assessment has revealed significant needs in each of the three towns visited, in addition to considerable enthusiasm on the part of community representatives for an international presence and for the provision of community services. The needs of Dragas and the abilities of BPT seem particularly well matched; therefore, a follow-up visit is being planned. The team's findings and recommendations will be presented at BPT's General Assembly in November for further discussion and planning.
Oral History Project Assessment
Over the past several weeks, BPT has met with a number of local activists to discuss the feasibility of an oral history project, which would involve interviewing local people and recording their experiences of life during the war. The best way to approach this sensitive issue, according to the guidance and feedback received from these local activists, would be to present such a project as a documentation of "stories of survival." The aim of such a project would be to collect a number of stories that include, for example, instances where Serb and Albanian neighbors assisted each other during the war as well as stories where the agreements between neighbors broke down.
The team envisages that these stories would assist in creating a historical record of the multiple realities of the war as experienced by different people -- with the goal of countering what local activists fear is becoming the homogenisation of the war experience. The Balkan Peace Team hopes that by disseminating such stories of survival locally, using local media, that this will contribute to a more tolerant atmosphere and that the full complexity of experience of the recent war can be preserved so as to serve as tool for future peace-building in Kosovo/a. International distribution is also desired. This proposal will be discussed further at BPT's General Assembly in November.
II. OBSERVATIONS AND IMPRESSIONS
Although the general security situation in Kosovo/a, according to the NATO-led KFOR (Kosovo Force), continues to improve -- with an average weekly murder rate of six being reported in mid-October, down from the average of 30 in early June -- the situation for minority groups throughout the province remains volatile, especially for Kosovo/a's Serb and Roma populations.
The brutal murder of a Bulgarian UNMIK (United Nations Mission in Kosovo) employee on 12 October on the streets of downtown Pristina for reportedly responding to a question in Serbian, as well as a grenade attack on a Serb market in Kosovo Polje in late September which killed two and injured dozens, serve as stark reminders of the overall climate of intolerance toward minorities and those perceived as such. Indeed, the tensions surrounding minority groups in Kosovo/a are such that the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) is advising against the return of minority populations to the province and is encouraging those countries hosting refugees belonging to minority groups to desist in facilitating their return. Moreover, the UNHCR has stated that members of Kosovo/a's Roma communities are considered to be particularly vulnerable and therefore their return should not be assisted at this time.
As is typically the case elsewhere in Europe, Kosovo/a's Roma communities historically have been considered an underclass and, consequently, have been stigmatized and discriminated against by all other communities of the province. This history of stigmatisation, in conjunction with the perception among the Albanian majority that the Roma had participated in both the looting of Albanian property and in the perpetration of violence against Albanian communities during the NATO war, have created a very unstable security environment for those few Roma that remain in Kosovo/a. The flight of some 450 Roma from a displaced persons camp outside Pristina to the Stenkovac II refugee camp in Macedonia at the end of September illustrates the desperation that many Roma communities are experiencing. Constant harassment, threats, physical assault, looting, extortion, and house burning continue to be reported from Roma communities.
Throughout Kosovo/a, KFOR soldiers continue to serve as armed guards for minority enclaves, families, and in some cases, even individuals. For example, approximately 160 Serbs and one Roma family live together under 24-hour KFOR protection in a Serbian monastery school in Prizren, south of Pristina. For the Serbs of Prizren, even with the significant KFOR presence in the town, each day holds fear for life and property --especially since house burning in Prizren has continued virtually unabated over the past several weeks, with at least one burning of a Serbian residence being reported almost nightly.
Intimidation and freedom of movement continue to be identified by Serbs as the main problems with which they contend. As a consequence, many Serbs from threatened enclave areas such as Orahovac/Rahovec continue to leave the province for what they believe will be a more secure environment in either Montenegro or Serbia proper. For example, the UNHCR organized a humanitarian evacuation of 85 Serbs from Orahovac/Rahovec on 6 October as well as a more recent evacuation consisting of 155 Serbs on 27 October. Although this most recent refugee convoy was traveling under KFOR protection, part of the procession was blocked and attacked by as many as 1,500 Albanians while passing through the town of Pec/Peja.
The new commander of KFOR, General Dr. Reinhardt, as well as the Special Representative of the Secretary General and head of UNMIK, Dr. Kouchner, have strongly condemned this attack on a humanitarian refugee convoy, stating that "KFOR and UNMIK cannot tolerate blockades that deny the citizens of Kosovo their fundamental and democratic rights of freedom of movement and will make every effort to bring those responsible to justice."
The efforts made by UNMIK and KFOR at bringing the perpetrators of ethnic violence to justice, along with their tasks of creating a secure and democratic environment in Kosovo/a are important, to be sure; however, in the words of one long-time BPT friend in Pristina, until the Albanian majority can begin to engage in a process of "self-reflection about what it would mean for Kosova to be a multi-ethnic society," then the efforts of KFOR and UNMIK will fail to take root properly and fully. That is, the preservation of the multi-ethnic character of Kosovo/a will require the active participation of the Albanian majority - a participation in which individuals will not engage until the voices of tolerance within Albanian society itself can feel free to speak openly and without intimidation. The atmosphere of intolerance within Kosovo/a permeates both inter- and intra-ethnic contexts. As a consequence, threats of violent reprisals have been leveled against those few Albanians who have voiced their concerns over the frequency of Albanian perpetration of ethnic violence (see Political Update for more details). Such an atmosphere does not bode well for multi-ethnicity in Kosovo/a.
The issue of Albanian political prisoners being held in detention in Serbia continues to be a high priority among the Albanians of Kosovo/a. Protests are still being held in Pristina, including a powerful silent vigil in front of the UNMIK headquarters during United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's 13-14 October visit to the province.
The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has been conducting interviews with family members of the detained in order to clarify the status and determine the possible whereabouts of detainees. Moreover, the OHCHR is using this documentation to give priority to the most vulnerable cases -- that is, those detainees identified as women, children, elderly, and infirm.
A group of 54 political prisoners was released from the Serbian prison in Sremska Mitrovica on 4 October and were reunited with their families in Kosovo/a with the assistance of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Over the past month the race to secure political power in Kosovo/a has heated up. In general, the political wing of the UÇK (the Albanian acronym for the Kosova Liberation Army) has seen a decline in their popularity and they are desperately trying to regain it. The most desperate of their moves has been the UÇK-associated Kosova Press claim that the publisher and editor of Kosovo/a's leading independent newspaper Koha Ditore, Veton Surroi and Baton Haxhiu respectively, are spies for the Yugoslav government. Furthermore, the Kosova Press has labeled Surroi and Haxhiu as "bastard ragtag," "ordinary mobsters," and the "garbage of history" and has stated that the two run the risk of "eventual and very understandable revenge."
There are signs that UÇK political leadership is feeling an erosion of power and that it is on the defensive. When NATO entered Kosovo/a in June, the UÇK-dominated Provisional Government was quick to establish itself in Pristina and by July had set up municipal governments throughout Kosovo/a and declared itself to be the only legitimate leadership. It soon became clear, however, that it was the UN that called the shots in Kosovo/a. Moreover, the provisional government's lack of ability to deliver on its promises has backfired dramatically.
Although remaining elusive and lacking in leadership strategy, Ibrahim Rugova, the leader of the Democratic League of Kosova (LDK), has been enjoying an upsurge in popularity. According to the Pristina-based independent analyst Ylber Hysa, "Rugova's strategy of 'doing nothing' is working for him. People have had very little concrete contact with his politics. Their contact with the UÇK, on the other hand, is through war and destruction."
Hashim Thaçi, head of the UÇK political leadership, has been hitting the streets all over Kosovo/a trying to bolster support. A recent BPT trip to the small town of Dragas, near Prizren, coincided with a visit by Thaçi. A group of around 200 gathered in front of the government building awaiting his arrival, but many residents were indifferent and just continued with their daily routines. From our café seats we could hear a local musician sing a satirical rag about Thaçi. Many people are turning back towards Rugova because they consider him "more democratic, more civilised."
The desire of the people of Kosovo/a to put the past behind them and return to a more moderate life has been underestimated by the UÇK. In a conversation with BPT, the UÇK-aligned mayor from a town in Drenica stated: "My first party was the LDK and my last party will probably be the LDK."
"It's huge, it's crowded, and it's American." Such is the description written by the KFOR Chronicle (the monthly newspaper published by the Kosovo Force) regarding the huge military base in Kosovo/a that the US Army is busy constructing. The base, know as Camp Bondsteel, will be the US Army's largest base camp construction since the Vietnam War. Over a thousand engineers and hundreds of local staff have been working around the clock to build the base. When completed, the camp will hold 4,800 personnel. The building work is estimated to have cost 36.6 million US dollars.
In other KFOR news, Lieutenant-General Sir Mike Jackson handed over control of the NATO-led Kosovo Force to German Lieutenant-General Klaus Reinhardt on 8 October. General Reinhardt, the commander of NATO's Land Forces Center Europe Division, will be the first German military leader to command a NATO peacekeeping force since Germany joined the alliance in 1955.
Observations of the International Presence
There is now a massive international presence in Kosovo/a. There are 42,000 KFOR troops, an estimated 350 international non-governmental organisations (INGOs), plus all the United Nations (UN), Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and European Union (EU) staff. Despite the vital humanitarian and reconstruction role that these agencies play, there are a number of concerning aspects to the international intervention in Kosovo/a.
The majority of the INGOs and their international staff are based in Pristina. This concentration in Pristina means that many outlying towns and villages receive minimal attention or are completely neglected by the various international agencies. Moreover, there is competition between agencies to attract the best local and international employees, which has resulted in inflated salaries and high rents and has had a major impact on the local economy. The competition between the various agencies also disrupts the services that they provide as employees are lured away by promotions or higher wages by organisations that do not respect the need for employment termination notice periods. This problem is compounded by the high turnover of many international staff who work on short contracts or who transfer to other crisis areas, thus making it difficult to build relationships of trust with local communities.
The tendency of the international agencies to offer high salaries for interpreting and driving positions to locals with good English language skills has led to criticism from local activists. For example, it is now difficult for schools to hire English language teachers as they cannot offer salaries comparable to those paid by the international agencies. As one local BPT contact pointed out, if the United Nations Mission in Kosovo/a (UNMIK) is trying to develop civil and judicial administration systems, how can they expect to attract and retain suitable employees when judges are being paid three times less than drivers and interpreters?
There are other negative aspects to the international intervention. For example, there are instances of inappropriate intervention occurring, such as out-of-date goods being sent as humanitarian aid. Another common complaint being voiced is that there are many promises being made by international agencies but few actual goods or services being delivered. This is a source of tremendous frustration for the local communities.
Additionally, there is concern that projects are being implemented based on donor criteria rather than on local need. Many comment that lessons from past mistakes made during missions such as that in Bosnia-Herzegovina have not been learnt or simply have been forgotten. Moreover, there seems to be a limited use of local NGOs and communities as project partners by many of the international agencies. This hinders local capacity building and does not take advantage of the skills of the local people and organisations, nor does this approach access what one local contact describes as "the energy of the Albanian people to rebuild their lives." That is, total reliance upon the top-heavy bureaucracy of UNMIK and the other large international agencies for the construction of civil society structures and the building of a stable economic future is problematic. The key to success of the international mission in the province, according to this contact, is discovering "how to channel the independent spirit of the Albanians for the economic benefit of Kosova."
The issues described above illustrate the need for an adherence to codes of conduct in order to improve the co-ordination between the hundreds of INGOs, the various UN agencies, the OSCE, the European Union, and KFOR so as to avoid duplication of efforts and thus improve the services offered to the local communities. To this end, the NGO Council, which had been established in Kosovo/a before the war, has been revived in order to help address these pressing issues of responsible humanitarian assistance implementation. The Balkan Peace Team recently has become a member of the NGO Council.
III. VISITORS
Women's Aid to Former Yugoslavia (WATFY)
During October three members of WATFY -- Sian, Jane, and Vron -- stayed with BPT in our apartment in Pristina. They had driven a truck full of aid from Britain to Kosovo/a which they distributed to local Kosovar women's organisations such as Motrat Qiriazi and the Center for the Protection of Women and Children. They also brought some goodies, such as Welsh tea, for the team. The treats and the company were both much appreciated!
Balkan Peace Team in Kosovo/a
Rruga Nëna Tereze 72-A/9 or Vidovdanska 72-A/9,
Pristina, Kosovo
Tel/Fax: ++381-38-42 708
E-mail: BPT-K@BalkanPeaceTeam.org
If you wish to use or require clarification of any of the information included, please contact Balkan Peace Team FRY at the above address. Please forward this report to anyone you think may be interested.
International BPT Office
Ringstr 9a,
D-32427 Minden,
Germany
Phone: +49-571-20776
Email: BPT@BalkanPeaceTeam.org
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