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  | 

A troubled day in Northern Kosovo

A troubled day in Northern Kosovo.

On Friday 14 March, a mob, armed with metal bars, overran and destroyed the police points outside the court in North Mitrovica, and occupied the building. UNMIK made clear, early on, that such behaviour would not be tolerated, and the SRSG directed the police to restore law and order in Northern Mitrovica.

UNMIK attempted throughout the weekend to talk with those occupying the court to resolve the issue. By Monday, it was clear that these efforts would not bear fruit. UNMIK also had intelligence that K-Serb extremists were planning to attack another building in Mitrovica (either police or prison). So, in the early hours of 17 March, UNMIK Police, supported by KFOR forces, entered the court building and detained those still occupying the compound. They did not use force - they didn't need to (but they did, naturally, handcuff those they  detained ). They made preparations to remove them for questioning elsewhere in Kosovo .   

In response, an angry mob of Serbs formed by the courthouse. When UNMIK tried to move the second group of prisoners, they attacked the convoy, using vehciles to block its path, and set the prisoners free. They then turned their attention to KFOR and UNMIK  at the courthouse, whom they attacked with rocks, firearms and grenades. Over  50 police and soldiers were injured, some seriously. 1 Ukrainian police officer, tragically, died of his injuries. KFOR and UNMIK were forced to defend themselves from the mob; Serbian media have reported 60 injured amongst the inhabitants of Mitrovica.

These are the facts of the matter as I understand them (see the UNMIK/KFOR press briefing [PDF] for more details, or the BBC report )

Serbia's 'Minister for Kosovo and Metohija'*, Slobodan Samardzic called  the arrests 'unjustified', and accused  UNMIK of violence.

But in a situation where a Serb mob overran and occupied the Court (which is run by UNMIK  under UN Security Council Resolution 1244 - see unmikonline)  and  UNMIK exhausted every effort to persuade them to surrender with no success, the police would be justifed in taking action to resume control of the court - without harm to those inside.  

And in a situation where  the police came under sustained fire from an angry mob while carrying out its duties, the police, supported by KFOR, would be justified in responding with the minimum force necessary to retain control of the court building and protect their own personnel.  

For two weeks, the court has been the focus of protests, and attempts at capture, by a group of former employees of the Serbian court system. This has prevented the court from carrying out its work for some time (the court covers all of Mitrovica region - not only for the Serb community). The protestors claim that they were expelled from their jobs in 1999, and only want them back. This is misleading. In 1999, the Serbian Court system (run by Serbs, for Serbs) was, along with other Yugoslav state structures, removed from Kosovo. In its place, UNMIK established a multiethnic  judicial system, run for all Kosovo's communities. The protestors are not simply asking for their jobs back; they are asking us to turn the clock back to 1999, to an unacceptable situation where Kosovo Albanians were denied access to justice .

What we saw yesterday was an attack on law enforcement officers trying to carry ot their duty in ensuring justice for all in Kosovo, as mandated by UN Security Council Resolution 1244. To call this unjustified and to accuse UNMIK of violence seems to me like a return to the worst thinking of the past and echoes the kind of behaviour, and tactics, we saw in the Balkans in the 1990s.

*More name issues. During Kosovo's period of autonomy in Yugoslavia, it was known simply as Kosovo; when Milosevic came to power, he renamed the province to an earlier Serbian name - 'Kosovo and Metohija', Metohija being the Western part of Kosovo (known as Dukagjin by Albanians) home to many of the most historical Churches - from metokhe, Greek word meaning religious community. UNMIK, and the British government, simply use Kosovo.

Posted at 11:48 20 March 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]