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Hope on the Balkans Kosov@ Crisis 1999
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Hope on the Balkans Kosov@ Crisis 1999
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Balkan Peace Team
Kosovo/a team
Monthly report # 11
(January 2000)
Balkan Peace Team in Kosovo/a:
Rruga Nėna Tereze 72-A/9 or Vidovdanska 72-A/9
Prishtina, Kosovo
Tel/Fax: ++381-38-42 706
E-mail: BPT-K@BalkanPeaceTeam.org
BPT International Office:
Ringstr. 9a
D-32427 Minden, Germany
Tel: ++49-571-20776
Email: BPT@BalkanPeaceTeam.org
If you wish to use or require clarification of any of the information included below, please contact Balkan Peace Team Kosovo/a at the above address. Please forward this report to anyone you think may be interested.
I. Work of the team
1. Project Update
2. New Team Member Training
3. AEGEE (Association of European Students)
4. Balkan Sunflowers
5. Protection Working Group
6. NGO Council
II. Observations & impressions
1. Minorities Update
2. Political Prisoners Update
3. Political Update
4. International Presence Update
I. Work of the team
The new year brings a number of significant developments to the team in Kosovo/a. First, the team has expanded to include five volunteers -- we say hello to and welcome our three new colleagues: Barbara Allen, Liz Abraham and Kajsa Svensson. Second, in addition to continuing our role of independent reporting and identifying opportunities for cross-community dialogue, BPT is beginning to implement two projects, both of which represent a new approach to the peace-building work of the organisation (see Project Update below). Despite the numerous problems and frustrations of working and living in post-war Kosovo/a, the team is looking forward to the challenges ahead and appreciates your continued support.
1. Project Update
The team has entered into its second phase of planning for its two new projects -- the youth peace- building center in the multi-ethnic town of Dragash, southern Kosovo/a, and the oral history project documenting Albanian stories of wartime survival.
One of the needs identified by BPT as a requirement for taking the next step regarding these projects was an expansion of the team from three members to five. That need has been met this month with the arrival of three new volunteers. With a five-person team -- the largest ever for BPT -- we will be able to maintain an active presence in Prishtina in order to continue to develop relationships with local activists and we will be able to engage effectively in the second phase of our project plans: fundraising.
The huge international presence in Kosovo/a means that ample funding is available for a wide variety of projects. The team is in an excellent position to secure some of these funds -- and we have been developing fundraising strategies as well as both shorter and longer term goals regarding the implementation of both projects.
2. New Team Member Training
From 7-14 January, the pooled BPT volunteers gathered at Amersfoort, in the Netherlands, for their pre-field training. Led by Dorie Wilsnack of the BPT International Office and Birgit Felleisen, formerly of Quaker Peace and Service in Sarajevo, the week-long training covered conflict analysis, team dynamics and project planning. Robert Sautter, a current member of the Kosovo/a Team, served as the resource leader, giving his future teammates a practical picture of life in Prishtina. The training was unique from previous BPT trainings in that all the volunteers will eventually be serving on the same team. This allowed the attendees to concentrate on the political situation in Kosovo/a and begin preliminary discussions of the proposed Dragash Youth Peace-building Center and the oral history project. The volunteers found the pragmatic approach of the training, particularly the use of role plays, valuable in prompting discussions and learning to handle dilemmas and complex situations. The personal experiences the trainers and resource leader shared added greater dimension to the dialogues.
Three of the pooled volunteers, Liz Abraham, Barbara Allen and Kajsa Svensson, left for the field after their international office orientation.
Cristina Bianchi will be joining the team in early April and Merlijn van Wass in July.
3. AEGEE (Association of European Students)
During the last few months and throughout January, BPT has facilitated a number of meetings of Kosovar participants involved in AEGEE's peace-building and civic development project called "Bridges to Kosovo/a." As mentioned in our September monthly report, the project seeks to establish a low profile, grassroots association of Kosovar Serb and Albanian university students with the objective of providing a framework within which future dialogue between the two communities can begin.
Ten members of the group will be travelling to Budapest, Hungary, for a one-week training in how to establish a non-governmental organisation (NGO). The participants will then travel to Cyprus with the aim of examining the dynamics of that particular conflict, thus providing a point of departure for the beginnings of a discussion of the Kosovo/a conflict.
The involvement of Serbian participants has declined during the last month due to the difficulties and dangers faced by Serbs living in Kosovo/a. Despite this, the Albanian members of the group continue to meet and to discuss strategies for maintaining contact with the Serbian participants in order to ensure that their project will proceed as planned. The group hopes to establish a branch of AEGEE in Kosovo/a.
4. Balkan Sunflowers
One member of the team had the opportunity to visit the Balkan Sunflowers Shutka project in Skopje, Macedonia. Shutka is a neighborhood on the outskirts of Skopje where members of the Roma community live, including Roma refugees from Kosovo/a. The project includes social activities and language classes. Balkan Sunflowers also has projects in Kosovo/a and in Albania.
5. Protection Working Group
BPT continues to attend the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Protection Working Group meetings which are held bi-weekly. The meetings are a forum for national and international NGOs who work in the human rights, refugee and humanitarian fields to share their experiences in order to improve the effectiveness of the protection of vulnerable groups throughout Kosovo/a.
6. NGO Council
The Balkan Peace Team continues to attend the meetings of the international NGO Council of which it is a member. The Council serves to foster co-operative efforts among organisations and to present NGO issues to UNMIK administration. Recent topics discussed at the NGO Council have included concerns over Kosovo Force (KFOR) actions since troop deployment last June and the medical evacuation procedure for NGO employees from Kosovo/a. The medical emergency issue arose following an incident in December when a seriously ill NGO volunteer required evacuation from Kosovo/a for urgent treatment but, due to unclear procedures and areas of responsibility by KFOR and other agencies, was not removed from the territory in a timely fashion and subsequently died.
II. Observations & impressions
Kosovo/a has been in the grip of severe winter weather, with temperatures recently plummeting to -29C. The cold winter conditions have added to the difficulties of living in this post-war society. The heavy snowfall and icy conditions have multiplied the hazards of driving in the territory and have resulted in frequent road and border crossing closures, thereby hampering the efforts of the humanitarian agencies in transporting needed aid into and throughout Kosovo/a. Prishtina airport has now been re-opened to commercial flights, thereby simplifying freight and passenger travel and easing the pressure on the road and rail system as well as on the two border crossings into Macedonia.
The cold conditions have been keenly felt throughout the territory because of electrical power shortages caused by a fire in one of the two main Kosovo/a power stations. Technical problems and a lack of parts for necessary repairs have added to the power problems. Both of Kosovo/a's main power stations have been neglected over the last ten years and much of the equipment needed for the plants to be fully functional was removed and taken to Serbia when the Yugoslav forces left the province in June of last year.
Throughout early January, many regions within Kosovo/a experienced power rationing which limited residential electrical use to a couple of hours per day. Some residential areas of the territory, however, had no power for several days at a time. Much of the electrical supply that was available in early January had been imported from the neighbouring countries of Macedonia, Greece, Albania and Serbia. The last week of January saw something of an improvement in the electricity situation, with only occasional power cuts.
1. Minorities Update
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), an average of 20 "security incidents" occur on a daily basis in Kosovo/a. The majority of these incidents, however, are no longer ethnically motivated but rather are considered to be problems related to simple criminal activity. That is, violent attacks against Kosovo/a minorities represent a smaller proportion of the total number of security issues in the territory than they had in previous months since the deployment of the NATO-led troops of the Kosovo Force (KFOR).
Although the overall frequency of ethnically motivated violence may have decreased of late throughout Kosovo/a, it has not ceased -- in fact, in Prizren, located south of Prishtina, the first two weeks of January saw a marked increase in the level of violence perpetrated against its minority communities. In addition to what seemingly has become the routine burning of vacant Serb houses and the eviction of those very few elderly Serbs still in residence in Prizren, there occurred on 12 January the brutal murder of a family of four belonging to the Slavic Muslim community of the city. This ruthless attack prompted a swift condemnation from Bernard Kouchner, Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) and head of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), as well as from the Kosovo Transitional Council (KTC), the highest-level Kosovar advisory body to UNMIK. The KTC expressed its outrage over the murders and stated that this crime should be used as an "occasion to renew its (the KTC's) commitment to work to an end to violence in Kosovo and towards tolerance and the protection of minorities."
While celebrating Orthodox Christmas in early January in the largely Serb town of Gracanica, Dr. Kouchner addressed the continuing concerns voiced by those Serbs living in Kosovo/a's main enclave areas by discussing UNMIK's recently introduced Agenda for Co-existence. The Agenda outlines the UN Mission in Kosovo's plan to provide utilities, transport, security and other needed services to vulnerable minority communities. Also while in Gracanica, Kouchner stated his expectation that the growing Serb interest in the Kosovo Police Service Academy - where currently there are 30 Serb cadets in training - would go far in improving the security situation for the territory's Serb minority.
2. Political Prisoners Update
On 24 January, BPT observed some 2,000-3,000 demonstrators in Prishtina protesting against the continued imprisonment of Albanians in Serbian prisons following the ending of the NATO campaign in June. The protest was a powerful display of solidarity, demonstrating the importance that the Albanian community places upon this issue. Demonstrations were also held in other parts of Kosovo/a.
Approximately 1,700 ethnic Albanians are still being held in Serbian prisons, most of whom are accused of being members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Under Yugoslav law, prisoners who have not been formally charged with a crime must be released after six months in prison. Most of the Albanians presently in Serbian custody have yet to be charged - even after having spent eight months in prison.
Rajko Danilovic, the lawyer defending Dr. Flora Brovina - a human rights activist arrested during the NATO bombing and sentenced in December to 12 years in prison -- has filed an appeal with the Serbian Supreme Court against his client's sentence. No response to the appeal has yet been received. It has been reported that Rada Trajkovic of the Serbian National Council has proposed that Flora Brovina be exchanged for Kosovo/a Serb doctor Andrija Tomanovic, who disappeared after NATO forces entered Kosovo/a.
Natasa Kandic of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, a prominent activist working on human rights violations in Kosovo/a and on behalf of the Albanian political prisoners in Serbia, has received the 1999 Human Rights Award given by the New York-based international organization Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. Natasa Kandic also received the award in the name of Bajram Kelmendi, the Kosovar Albanian lawyer who was killed with his two sons by Serbian police on the second day of the NATO campaign in March 1999. In her acceptance speech, Ms. Kandic stated that " I am very proud to receive this award in my and in the name of my late colleague and friend Bajram Kelmendi. But I am not pleased by the fact that there are still up to two thousand ethnic Albanian political prisoners in Serbian prisons. And I am not happy that I am the only Serb who feels safe in Kosovo today."
3. Political Update
In December of last year, Hashim Thaci, Ibrahim Rugova and Rexhep Qosja - leaders of Kosovo/a's three main Albanian political parties - joined UNMIK's Joint Interim Administrative Council (IAC), the purpose of which is to share in the administration of the territory. There are four seats on the Council allocated to local political leaders, one of which is reserved for a representative of Kosovo/a's Serb community. To date, the Serb community has yet to nominate a representative to take up their seat on the Council. Furthermore, Bishop Artemije, leader of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo/a and an important political actor in the territory, responded to Bernard Kouchner's request that he join the IAC by saying that "an answer at this time would be premature."
Although an answer may as yet be premature, negotiations between UNMIK and leaders of the Serb community in Kosovo/a to claim their seat on the IAC are underway and, according to Father Sava, an Orthodox priest and spokesman for the Serb National Council, are "about 90 percent done." Indeed, there appears to be an increasing recognition on the part of the Serb leadership in the territory that the members of their community stand to benefit significantly by working together with the international community in creating institutions that will be responsive to the needs of Kosovo/a's Serb minority.
The Council has been meeting regularly since its inception and has been working with UNMIK in developing the Joint Interim Administrative Structure (JIAS) -- a body of 19 administrative departments which will, as of 31 January 2000, integrate all previously existing Kosovo/a structures of an executive, legislative or a judicial nature. As of 18 January, 15 of the 19 departments of the JIAS had been allocated.
Two departments have been allocated to each of the three Albanian political parties participating in the IAC: the Democratic Progress Party of Kosovo (PPDK), led by Hashim Thaci, will co-head with an UNMIK-appointed international representative the departments of Health and Social Security and Civil Security and Emergency Preparedness; Ibrahim Rugova's Kosovo Democratic League (LDK) will co-head General Public Services and Post and Telecommunications; and the leader of the United Democratic League (LBD), Rexhep Qosja, will co-head Utilities and Non-resident Affairs. Three other departments have been given to various independent representatives on the IAC, four departments to the representatives of non-Albanian communities, and the department of Trade and Industry has been allocated to Professor Musa Limani of the PPDK. The leaders of these departments also will be partnered with an UNMIK representative.
Additionally, UNMIK has created a Special Expert Committee on Security -- a distinct body that is directly attached to the Interim Administrative Council. Both UNMIK and Kosovo/a experts will serve on the Committee and will communicate directly with KFOR and the United Nations Civilian Police operating in the territory.
The month of January also witnessed the swearing in ceremonies of 297 judges and prosecutors as well as the formal establishment of the Kosovo Protection Corps (KPC). With the swearing in of 43 senior Corps leaders on 19 January, the KPC, formed in late September of last year in order to integrate members of the former Kosovo Liberation Army, entered into force as an official body. All KPC members must pledge "to commit themselves to the betterment of their community."
4. International Presence Update
The end of 1999 and the start of the new year has witnessed a growing disillusionment with and criticism of the international presence in Kosovo/a. The source of this frustration is the continuing lack of security in Kosovo/a and the inability of UNMIK, KFOR and other international institutions to deal with issues relating to crime, the judicial system, employment and the payment of doctors, teachers and municipal workers. The seeming inability of the so-called international community to apply effective pressure on the Serbian regime to resolve the issue of the Albanian political prisoners being detained in Serbian jails is a major source of frustration.
The assault and murder of an eleven year-old Albanian girl by a U.S. soldier during January will further sour the relations between KFOR and the local population. Also in January, allegations were levelled against U.S. soldiers under KFOR command for using inappropriate physical force when dealing with Albanians during recent demonstrations and at vehicle check points.
Due to such incidents, organisations such as Amnesty International have begun calling for greater accountability of KFOR. Amnesty is asking KFOR to establish an independent complaints mechanism, accessible to all persons in Kosovo/a, through which charges against KFOR troops can be addressed effectively.
Regarding the increased criminality in Kosovo/a, residents argue that before the recent war, the Albanian populace was fearful of Serbian violence. However, people complain that today they are as fearful of the upsurge in Albanian criminal activity, violence and intimidation as they previously had been of the potential for the Serbian perpetration of violence. Peja/Pec, which according to official reports from UNMIK accounts for 9.5 per cent of the total number of crimes committed in Kosovo/a, is regarded as the "Wild West" of the territory. The people of Peja/Pec stay indoors during the evenings due to fear of robbery, kidnappings and murder. Many blame the increase in criminal activity on the chaotic security situation in Kosovo/a -- a situation which has allowed the Albanian mafia to infiltrate the territory . General frustrations are exacerbated when the local population see members of the international police force issuing parking tickets to cars without number plates (there would be no way of tracing the vehicle to collect fines because of the current lack of registration documents) rather than trying to catch criminals and attempting restore law and order.
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