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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 # 14
(April 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.
Contents
I. Work of the team
1. Personnel
2. Meetings
3. Observation of local demonstrations
4. "Stories of Survival" project
5. Dragash update
II. Kosovo/a political update
1. Serbs divided on decision to join as observers the Interim Administrative Council
2. Serbs boycott Kosovo/a civil registration
3. Voter registration begins abroad
4. United Nations Security Council visit to Kosovo/a
5. Joint Committee on Serb Returns formed
6. Update on Mitrovica and the Preshevo valley
I. Work of the team
1. Personnel
On 6 April, the Kosovo/a team was joined by our newest colleague, Cristina Bianchi. We are again a five-person team and look forward to learning from the skills and fresh insights that Cristina brings to the field.2. Meetings
Campagna Kossovo per la Non-Violenza e la Riconciliazione
The team met with Zef Chiaromonte of Campagna Kossovo per la Non-Violenza e la Riconciliazione, an Italian organisation which is organising, together with the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), a series of three training workshops for local trainers in conflict transformation and reconciliation. These will be held on the last weekend of May and the 3rd and 4th weekends of June in Prishtina. Kajsa Svensson, one of the BPT team members, was asked to participate as a trainer together with Pat Patfoort and Hildegard Goss-Mayr. Kajsa will introduce the workshop participants to the techniques of the Theatre of the Oppressed.Forum
Forum is an Albanian youth organisation based in Prishtina that was founded in September 1999 by five young Kosovar Albanians who have studied abroad. Their goal is to work alongside their peers in building an alternative, more positive way of living. Among their current projects are an Internet service centre which is open to local NGOs and youth to use free of charge, computer training classes for ex-KLA soldiers and the Forum Magazine, a bi-monthly magazine targeted at the young Albanian population of Kosovo/a. The organisation would eventually be interested in making connections with the youth of the Dragash Youth Centre.3. Observation of local demonstrations
On 20 April, several hundred people gathered in Prishtina in front of the steps of the National Theatre to demonstrate against the incarceration of Flora Brovina and other Albanian prisoners held in Serbia. Flora is the Kosovar Albanian human rights activist who has been sentenced to twelve years in prison by the Serb authorities.On 26, 27 and 28 April, the centre of Prishtina was closed to traffic due to another demonstration for the release of all political prisoners held in Serbia. The demonstration coincided with the visit of the UN Security Council and attracted a considerable amount of people. Most shops and schools were closed for the duration of the protests. Several dozen people continued the protests after the Security Council delegation's departure from the province by holding hunger strikes in the center of the city and on the university campus.
4. "Stories of Survival" project
As part of our effort to constantly be aware of changed circumstances, and to reshape our plans and ideas to better respond to the needs of the local population, the team has been carrying out a series of meetings, with locals and internationals, to establish if it is still appropriate for BPT to carry out the "Stories of Survival" project.We became aware that other local NGOs were doing similar work. Therefore we felt that it was imperative for us to reassess the situation and establish if, at this point in time, the need for these stories to be told and recorded was already being met by the locals themselves.
The team met with Sevdie Ahmeti of The Centre for the Protection of Women and Children, who has been gathering testimonies since the end of the war. Sevdie made us aware of the difficulties of the local community to open up with internationals since they feel that after almost a year nothing concrete has been done to bring to justice the perpetrators. Psychological wounds are still fresh, she argued, and the population needs time to heal.
We received a similar response from Kosovare Kelemendi of the Humanitarian Law Centre. She stressed the importance of all stories to be heard and remembered but she also highlighted how difficult it is for internationals to go through this process without being in close partnership with a local organisation.
The team also met with a few internationals who have previous experience with oral history projects, to gather new ideas on how to use BPT's capacity in order to best meet the need of the local communities to have their stories heard and remembered.
5. Dragash update
BPT's work with the Goran and Albanian communities of Dragash continued, with three separate English language classes beginning on 17 April. The classes are being taught in the town's secondary school to one group of Albanian students, one group of Goran students, and one mixed group of Goran and Albanian secondary school teachers. They are an important step in BPT's strategy to build a strong and trusting relationship between the team and the two communities of the area, as we continue to work together toward the goal of establishing a youth centre open to young people from both groups.The English language classes, the first session of which is scheduled to end on 1 June, are each being taught by a two-person team. We have incorporated co-operative games and empowerment activities that illustrate and/or employ the grammar lessons being presented.
Throughout the month of April, the team traveled extensively to the villages that local Goran and Albanian representatives suggested as being appropriate for inclusion in the proposed centre's activities. We did in order to: meet and establish relationships with village leaders and young people alike; discuss the concept of the youth centre and make clear that it will be open to young people from both the Goran and the Albanian communities; assess the needs that young people would like to have met through the services and activities offered by a youth centre; and discuss Goran concerns regarding issues of safety and transportation from their villages to the centre's proposed Dragash location.
These outreach meetings have served BPT well in beginning the process of building trust, without which our strategy of fostering the participation of both communities in the creation of the youth centre would be impossible. Moreover, the team is beginning to identify young people who may be interested in facilitating future youth centre activities.
II. Kosovo/a Political Update
1. Serbs divided on decision to join as observers the Interim Administrative Council
Leaders of the Serb National Council (SNC) announced that they would join as observers the leaders of Kosovo/a's ethnic Albanian majority in the province's UN-sponsored Interim Administrative Council (IAC) for a period of three months starting on 11 April. The decision to end the Serb boycott of the joint administration has caused havoc among the hard-liners within the Serbian community who do not accept any form of co-operation either with the international community or with Kosovar Albanians.Swedish peacekeeping troops are normally deployed to guard the edge of the Serb enclave of Gracanica against ethnically motivated attacks. They were needed instead in the centre of town, after demonstrations and after threats were made by some Serbs to burn down Gracanica's 14th century monastery, home of the Serb National Council, in protest of the SNC's decision to join the IAC.
2. Serbs boycott Kosovo/a civil registration
Kosovo/a's Serbs are boycotting efforts by UNMIK and OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) representatives (who joined forces in the Joint Registration Task Force last December) to register Kosovo/a's population. The function of this registration exercise, which began on 28 April, is to define and identify the population of habitual residents of Kosovo/a who will require services from the Joint Interim Administration. The registry will also be the basis for the electoral roll for municipal elections to be held sometime in autumn 2000.Four villages participated in a pilot registration one week prior to the official commencement of the process. A total of 459 adult residents in the three pilot ethnic Albanian communities registered at OSCE centres, but no one had done so in the Serb-populated village. The community in this village is asking for the return of displaced Serbs and better security before they will consider registering. By 3 May, only three Serbs in Kosovo/a had registered with UNMIK/OSCE two in Rahovec/Orahovac and one in Mitrovica.
In order to encourage Serb registration, the Joint Registration Task Force announced that two registration stations would be erected on the border with Serbia proper, one in the Serb-populated Leposavic region of far northern Kosovo/a and one in Mucibaba in the south-east. This was done so that Serbs who fled ethnic Albanian reprisals after NATO air strikes resulted in the withdrawal of Serbian security forces last June could register without danger. Belgrade has denounced the civil registration process in Kosovo/a as yet another violation of its sovereignty by the United Nations administration in the territory. This, along with the Serb National Council of Kosovo/a's announcement that it will withhold its support of civil registration, may be factors hindering Serb participation.
3. Voter registration begins abroad
Beginning on 26 April and ending on 15 July, the International Organisation for Migration, on behalf of UNMIK, will be engaged in the process of registering persons from Kosovo/a who reside outside the territory. This registration process will take place in 32 countries and is valid only for the purpose of voting in the local elections to be held this autumn.4. United Nations Security Council visit to Kosovo/a
From 27 to 30 April, a delegation of Security Council members toured the province in order to assess the implementation of UN Resolution 1244 which established the mandate for the UN mission in Kosovo (UNMIK. The group consisted of representatives from Argentina, Bangladesh, Canada, China, Jamaica, Malaysia and Russia. They attended a session of the Kosovo Transitional Council, the highest level Kosovar advisory body to UNMIK, to which both Serbian and Bosniak representatives have returned after a half-year absence. There, the delegates urged all Kosovars to reject violence in order "to help your children to grow up in a peaceful society."The Security Council delegation also met with the leaders of the Protest Council that had organised two days of demonstrations in the streets of Prishtina. The Protest Council protests sought to call to the attention of the UN representatives, the need for definitive action to be taken regarding the issue of missing persons and detainees held in Serbian prisons. The Security Council delegates announced that they would recommend that a UN special envoy on missing persons be appointed.
5. Joint Committee on Serb Returns formed
On 29 April, UNMIK established the JCR -- Joint Committee on Serb Returns -- in order to prepare for the safe and sustainable return of those Serbs who fled from Kosovo/a over the past year. The JCR is headed by Bishop Artemije, president of the Serb National Council; Juan Ortuna, the new commander of the Kosovo Force (KFOR); and Bernard Kouchner, the head of UNMIK.The leader of the Mitrovica Serb National Council, Oliver Ivanovic, announced this month that he has begun to organise the return of some 1,000 to 1,500 Serbs currently living in refugee camps in Serbia to their homes in western Kosovo/a. The office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has cautioned against such a large-scale return, stating that security conditions for Serbs in the territory continue to be unfavourable and that the Albanian residents of the region of planned return should be consulted beforehand. Ivanovic has stated that he has no intention to open discussions with Albanian leaders regarding issues of return.
6. Update on Mitrovica and the Preshevo valley
Tensions in Mitrovica remain high as violent incidents continue. For example, on 28 April, a UN bus that was carrying Serbs to an Orthodox Easter service, was stoned by Albanians. The following day, Serbs attacked vehicles transporting Albanians to their homes on the north side of the city, resulting in the outbreak of riots and numerous attacks against KFOR soldiers and UN staff and the destruction of several UN vehicles. As a result, the UNHCR announced that it would consider suspending its work in north Mitrovica if attacks against UN personnel continued.The political council that was formed in March to represent Albanians living in the Preshevo valley of southern Serbia announced that Serb forces killed three Albanians on 21 April. In addition, KFOR continues to seize large amounts of weapons en route to the valley region and has added 120 soldiers to begin surveillance operations along Kosovo/a's eastern, UN-administered boundary with Serbia.
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