Ruairi O'Connell

The power of symbols

From the Embassy window, I can see a pair of eagles circling above Pristina; I've seen many in the Kosovo countryside, but I think it is rare to see them in an urban environment.

Eagles are revered across the Balkans (and more widely in Central and Eastern Europe). They feature on both the Albanian and Serbia (state) flag, in double-headed form. This set me thinking about the power of symbols in this part of the world.

There is a much-quoted story from the war in Croatia where a ceasefire was called between Croatian forces and Croatian Serb militia. The details of a local truce had been agreed, but the whole ceasefire collapsed over the issue of which flag - Serbian or Croatian - should fly over the local train station.

I can't vouch for the accuracy of the story, but it illustrates the importance given to symbols in this part of the world. Flags are everywhere in Kosovo; people fly them at weddings, when building houses, and on celebrations. And flags cause arguments, too: last week, a man was arrested after allegedly breaking into a Mosque and hanging a Serbian flag from the roof (and then, apparently, shooting at Kosovo police officers).

This was why so much effort was placed into the design of the new Kosovo flag, designed to represent ideals shared by all Kosovo's communities (its colours - blue, yellow and white - represent the European identity of Kosovo), and to alienate none. It is a commendable design, for this reason. But it will be a long time before we see Kosovo Serbs flying the flag. This is not the flag's fault. It's pretty obvious to say, but symbols represent people and views. So when the people are divided, the use of symbols will reflect that. Even the eagle symbol fails to unify; the Albanian eagle is black, the Serbian white. But the flag does represent a noble intention; to create new symbols that can represent everyone. And it is that intention - rather than the symbols themselves - that may mean that, in the future, everyone in Kosovo feels represented by shared symbols.

Posted at 16:29 04 July 2008 by Ruairi O'Connell  | 

Blog: EURO 2008

Watching Sweden vs Russia last night on a big screen in central Pristina (provided by the Swiss Government - and winning them a high profile and lots of friends in football-mad Kosovo!) made me realise how much EURO 2008 says about Kosovo.

Firstly, the positive image of Europe. Kosovo's citizens (of all ethnicities) share the aspiration to join (eventually) the European Union. But they bristle, understandably, at the suggestion (made usually by foreigners) that they might, one day, 'join Europe'. They counter that, whilst they want to join the EU, they are already part of Europe - geographically, culturally, and emotionally. This is a source of considerably pride, perhaps not obvious to those of us whose European identity is not under question. And this positive image of Europe expresses itself in the least expected places. One TV commentator here insists in calling spectular goals "Eurogoals" (as in 'what a Eurogoal from Christiano Ronaldo). The popular Balkan chocolate spread is called 'Eurokrem' too; so the prefex 'euro' carries a mark of quality and luxury.

Secondly, it's easy to see how qualifying for major sporting events (like EURO 2008) is a source of national pride. But for Kosovo, denied the chance to participate in sporting events since Milosevic came to power, international sporting competition is all the more important. I spoke last month to the head of the Kosovo Olympic Committee, who is trying (without much success so far) to get Kosovo athletes to the Beijing Olympics (I understand Kosovo has some credible boxers and weightlifters); they will redouble their efforts to make it to London in 2012. So Kosovo football fans have mixed feelings watching EURO 2008; they enjoy the spectacle, but wish they had at least a chance to qualify.

Thirdly, football tournaments in general illustrate the relationship of the Kosovo diaspora (about whom I have previously written) with their host country. The diaspora has been a bedrock of support for Kosovo's Albanian community since the early 1990s - both financially and politically. So it is intriguing to see the strength of support for the 'host' countries' teams - especially Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Sweden, who have large Kosovo Albanian diaspora, but also England (although sadly not this time). This stretches from people who now hold the citizenship of the host state, to those who spent a few years or months there (and even who may have been returned unwillingly to Kosovo). I am still struck by how quickly the K-Albanians adopt the identity of the host state, and the strength of gratitude towards it - and how they see no contradiction in remaining proudly Albanian.

Finally, the fans at the big screen show how Kosovo is still a very political place; whether a team gets supported seems to depend on whether or not the country has recognised Kosovo. A reminder, lest we forget the importance of independence.

Posted at 16:23 19 June 2008 by Ruairi O'Connell  | 

Trip to Gjakova/Djakovica

A day trip to the South-West Kosovo town of " Gjakova " in Albanian; "Djakovica " in Serbian on Saturday. Gjakova , historically a centre of Albanian intellectuallism , and later Albanian nationalism (dating from Ottoman times), suffered heavily in the war. During the fighting in 1999, Yugoslav forces drove out the population of the city; many hundreds of people are still missing. Having driven out the population, the Yugoslav forces then proceeded to burn down or blow up the historic centre of the city.

After KFOR entered Kosovo in June, most of Gjakova's population returned - and set about rebuilding the destroyed town. Today, most of it is rebuilt, offering a glimpse of Kosovo's Ottoman past.

But, alongside the return and reconstruction, there was also further destruction; the Serbian Church in the centre of town was destroyed in a revenge attack. The church, a modern build, has not been a priority for restoration work, and the site remains empty. With no Serbian community in Gjakova to rebuild it for (even before the war, very few Serbs lived in Gjakova - mostly connected to the state structures) , it's not clear when, if ever, the Church will be rebuilt.

This leads me to consider some of the questions people have put on the blog. To answer some of your questions, as I noted before, Mosques and Churches were targetted by using culture as a weapon in the conflict. The war in Kosovo wasn't related to religion; Islam does not play a central role in Kosovo Albanian identity. Neither were Mosques used to store weapons; they were targetted as symbols of the Albanian community.

It also leads me to a final thought; the Kosovo that existed before the war will only be fully restored once the Kosovo Serbs come back to rebuild - and they themselves choose to get involved.

Posted at 11:01 08 May 2008 by Ruairi O'Connell  | 

Islam in Kosovo

Easter Sunday tells us a lot about Islam in Kosovo.

During the Easter weekend, Kosovo's public broadcaster (RTK - http://www.rtklive.com/eng/index.php) transmitted a series of films about Easter, catering mainly, but not exclusively, to Kosovo's Catholic population (which consists of ethnic Albanians and Croats). Tellingly, Kosovo's Albanian Muslims also celebrated Easter, sometimes with their Catholic neighbours, but often on their own.
 
Islam arrived in Kosovo with the Ottoman empire. Beforehand, the Albanian population across the Balkans was mostly Christian, following either the Greek Orthodox Church or Roman Catholicism. The conversions to Islam were, in the main, voluntary. But they were also often 'economic', to get access to the exemption from tax granted to Muslims under the Ottomans. Hence Albanian Islam was famous historically for the practice of 'crypto-Christianity', where the head of the household converted to Islam, but women remained Christian, and children were raised (in varying degrees) in the Christian faith. This practice continued into the twentieth century - and has echoes even in the 1990s, when Kosovo Albanian Muslims, would, for example, visit the Decani Monastery (http://www.kosovo.net/main.html) on feast days. Colleagues who have served in other Muslim countries, including in the Middle East, tell me that this happens elsewhere too.

While Albanians were early, generally willing, converts, Islam never penetrated very deep into Albanian society. And unlike other Balkan Muslim communities, Islam played a very minor role in the creation of an Albanian national identity; instead, Albanian culture and language were the core around which Albanian identity was formed.

Earlier this month, Kosovo sent a delegation to the Organisation of the Islamic Conference Summit (http://www.oic-oci.org/oicnew/home.asp) headed by their Minister for Education, Enver Hoxhaj. Their aim was to use the opportunity to lobby a number of states to recognise Kosovo - many of whom have previously expressed solidarity with Kosovo. This has been and remains a difficult balancing act; seeking international recognition - but avoiding using Islam to define Kosovo.

Kosovo leaders play this balancing act elsewhere. A large number of mosques were destroyed by Yugoslav forces during the Kosovo war. I have written before about the corresponding destruction of churches after the war. Whereas the Kosovo government pledged to rebuild and repair all the damaged Churches - it made no such commitment for mosques (neither did the Serbian government); instead, those rebuilt were done so with private donations. For a few days, the decision to rebuild Churches but not mosques caused some minor controversy. But the feeling amongst most Kosovo Albanians, once people had reflected, was that it was right that they pay to repair the damage done by their co-nationals; some would also have felt uncomfortable with Kosovo paying for mosques from its budget. The draft Kosovo constitution (http://www.kushtetutakosoves.info/repository/docs/DraftConstitutionEnglish.pdf - "The Republic of Kosovo is a secular state and neutral in matters of religious belief") is avowedly secular. Will Kosovo offer an example of a secular, European, majority-Muslim democracy?

Posted at 11:28 25 March 2008 by Ruairi O'Connell  |  Comments[4]

Parallel Structures

Reading through comments of the last few entries, I'm glad that this blog has inspired some debate; I hope to see more comments in due course. We have seen from the last few days that Kosovo's independence arouses significant feelings.

One of the issues that has come up is that of 'parallel structures' in Kosovo. Rory, for example, asks "Why was it okay and even laudable for ethnic Albanians to have their parallel structures under Milosevic and not for Serbs to have them now under an Albanian-ruled Kosovo?".

A potted history of 'parallelism' in Kosovo may put things in context. In 1989, Milosevic managed, through force of arms, to remove Kosovo's autonomy. This led the Kosovo Albanians to set up their own parallel political structures (President and Parliament) to organise themselves politically. However, the Serbian government did not stop with political measures. Kosovo Albanians were removed from their jobs in socially-owned enterprises (the Yugoslav version of nationalised industries) and the publicly-owned enterprises (like the electricity plan and railways). They were expelled from school by force. They were excluded from hospitals. Their pensions were withdrawn; their savings seized by the Serbian government. In response, and funded by a voluntary 'tax' on the diaspora and private businesses in Kosovo, the Kosovo 'government in exile' funded a parallel healthcare and education system, with many teachers and doctors working for free.

In 1999, with the entry of NATO, this situation changed. A great many of the Serbs working in the 'socially-owned' enterprises left or were expelled (in many cases by the original workers whose jobs they had occupied since 1989). As the Serbian administration left, those Serbs employed in government and courts lost their jobs. Many Serbs left, either forced out or leaving due to fear. Much of the public sector disappeared.

Forwarding a few years, by 2004, there were functioning political, administrative, social, healthcare and education systems in Kosovo. The Kosovo Assembly includes [can we say how many out of how many?] reserved seats for the non-Albanian communities; the Kosovo Government, by law, includes Ministers from non-Albanian communities (currently two Kosovo Serbs and a Kosovo Turk). The 'Standards for Kosovo' were designed to ensure that the civil service was broadly representative of Kosovo society (see UNMIK's assessment ) The success rate was mixed; although it was rare for an institution to meet the informal 16% target for 'non-Albanian' representation (the Kosovo Police Service exceeded 20%), most reached at least high double figures (in the lack of a census since 1981, the Statistical Office of Kosovo estimates that 92% of the population are Kosovo Albanian).

In Kosovo Serb areas, the Kosovo government funded schools and healthcare establishments (as elsewhere). However, the Serbian government augmented this funding with its own direct funding. The Ahtisaari package (see previous blog entries) foresees this, and even stipulates that it must be allowed to continue.

There has, however, been a tendancy to use this 'top-up' funding as a means of exercising control over the Kosovo Serbs. For instance, in 2006 the Serbian government forced the Kosovo Serbs to withdraw from the Kosovo institutions and refuse their salaries, or else they would be refused the Serbian salary. This prompted President Ahtisaari to include transparency provisions in his plan to ensure that the funding would not be a tool of political manipulation.

Serbia has also, however, maintained parallel judicial structures that claim jurisdiction over Kosovo; most recently, radical Kosovo Serb leaders announced an intention to hold elections for government bodies in Kosovo under Serbian law. This goes far beyond support for Kosovo Serbs; it is a direct challenge to the legal order of Kosovo.

Put simply, Kosovo Albanian 'parallelism' was the inevitable and understandable result of exclusion from the state institutions. But now, the Standards for Kosovo and the Ahtisaari plan are there to make sure that the Kosovo Serbs are included in Kosovo's institutions (and some have taken up that place). It's vital that those Serbs are not now forced to quit these institutions under pressure to create 'parallel structures'. Instead, a place must be kept for them -  even if they don't take that place straight away.

Posted at 11:40 29 February 2008 by Ruairi O'Connell  |  Comments[1]

Independence Day: What was it like?

The details are all over the news. Kosovo declared independence on 17 February. The UK, based on assurances given to us from the Kosovo government, recognised Kosovo on the 18 February, and, together with the US and some of our European partners, we established diplomatic relations.

Mark Mardell has an interesting account of the celebrations in Pristina. He makes one very insightful point; the celebrations in Pristina over the last few days (and I can still hear celebratory car horns in the background as I write) have had an extra intensity to those in Montenegro.

It's worth asking why. There is much comment in the media about how Independence will not be a panacea for Kosovo. Well, of course it won't be. Thing is - no Kosovar (or Kosovian, or Kosovan)* thinks it will be. They hope that independence will open up new opportunities, and perhaps encourage a few of the more pioneering investors to look into Kosovo. But the real reason they want independence is to leave behind the awful experience of the past. Even so, it was encouraging to hear the PM and  President speak following the declaration. Both made a point of speaking in Serbian; both made efforts to show that, in the PM's words, 'the Kosovo government will stamp out discriminatory processes' ( it's good that they made this promise  -  the 'International Civilian Representative' will deploy to make sure they stick to them). The President said that Kosovo history could be divided into all that went before Independence, and Kosovo's new era. This has set the tone for the past few days; people want to get away from the cycle of violence so common in the Balkans.

The main celebrations stretched over two nights. The first - with the official concert, unveiling of the new flag (see  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Kosovo) - and 80 tonnes of fireworks launched from the centre of the city (and causing one nervous diplomat - me - to obsess about public service broadcasts from my childhood about not launching fireworks in built up areas, even if the display was carried out by Croatian experts) went off pretty smoothly. But, to many Kosovo Albanians, it didn't feel 'real'. I sat with one young Kosovo MP at the concert. She kept on saying "I can't believe it". It seemed to me that people were celebrating, in part, to make it true. The most moving moment was when the audience stood, spontaneously, when the Kosovo philharmonic played Ode to Joy - the European anthem; a sign, for me, that people want to look forward, not back.

The second day was very different. The first countries to recognise Kosovo had made their announcements (see number ten website). So when the news broke, people flooded back onto the streets. This time, there was no government organisation, no firework display or concert. But, despite a second night of cold weather, people just wanted to be there. The town, again, was covered in flags - not just the Albanian flag, or the new Kosovo flag, but the flags of any number of European countries - Germany and Switzerland (the first country to declare in favour of independence in mid 2007) particularly prominent. There were also posters thanking Britain for our role - the role we played in 1999 has not been forgotten.

Worth noting one thing. Besides a handful of injuries from the inevitable celebratory gunfire that accompanies any celebrations in Europe east of a line from Vienna to Helsinki, there were no security incidents over either evening. The government had taken steps to make sure that nothing ruined the day - Kosovo was plastered with posters urging people to 'celebrate with dignity'.

We also spent the days on the phone with those Kosovo Serb villagers we had talked to as part of the outreach programme. They were nervous about what might happen; they were concerned that Kosovo Albanian 'euphoria' would spill over into violence, in a repeat of March 2004.  I understand their fears. They had done nothing to provoke the violence in March 2004, yet had suffered deeply because of it, with 19 killed (Serbs and Albanians), and thousands more displaced. They feared that, again, they would be targetted through no fault of their own. But this time nothing happened. As a result, KFOR, the NATO-lead peacekeeping force, recorded zero  population movement during the last few days. This is something to celebrate.

Sadly, we haven't got through the whole week without violence. Yesterday, mobs from the K-Serb inhabited Northern part of Kosovo over-ran and burnt down two customs posts on the border with Serbia. Thankfully, no-one was hurt, but it was a disgraceful act that only ended up hurting the Kosovo Serbs in Northern Kosovo, who rely on those crossing points to pass back and forth to Serbia.

These mobs exist on the fringes of Kosovo Serb society; they do not represent the vast majority of Kosovo Serbs, who, every time I speak to them, want to talk about jobs, education, and opportunities for their children before discussing anything political (although we do, of course, discuss their deeply-held political views). But Kosovo Serbs in central Kosovo are made more nervous by the actions of their counterparts in Northern Kosovo; they feel most vulnerable to potential violent counter-reactions, and to any resulting destabilisation. 

But, for now, the events in the North are a  sideshow. We will have a lot to do to build on the mostly positive start, but Kosovo is in pretty good shape in its first week.

* Names again: lots of debate about what to call someone from Kosovo. UN sometimes  - but not always - says Kosovan. Kosovar is the term used by the Albanians - and thus rejected by the Serbs. Kosovian sounds too gothic and Kosovon like something from Dan Dare. I tend to use 'people of Kosovo', but that's hardly user friendly. Are there other ideas?)

Posted at 19:26 21 February 2008 by Ruairi O'Connell  |  Comments[4]