Ruairi O'Connell

Mitrovica

A flying visit to Mitrovica, yesterday, allied to our 'outreach' efforts.

I've mentioned Mitrovica before. This Northern Kosovo city is a symbol of Kosovo's ethnic divisions. Put very simply, Mitrovica was Kosovo's most prosperous city, built on the mineral wealth in the nearby Trepca mining complex. The city had an identity - based on the mines and its successful football team - that transcended ethnicity. However, following the war, Mitrovica has been split in two. Essentially, ethnic Albanian extremists expelled Serbs from the southern part; Serb extremists expelled the Albanians from the North (except for two parts of the town - the 'Little Bosnia' area and three tower blocks beside the river Ibar/Ibri which divides the town). Nowadays, for the most part, Serbs keep to the North, Albanians to the South, many living in properties occupied by displaced people just a few hundred metres away across the river. In the North, leather-jacketed thugs make sure that no Albanians enter 'Serb' areas; few Serbs want or feel safe enough to cross South of the river.

The town has repeatedly been the scene of clashes following the war, most seriously in March 2004, which helped to trigger riots across Kosovo that left 19 dead (both Serbs and Albanians).

Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of media interest in the situation in the town; it's hard to take two steps down the main street without bumping into a camera crew. Community leaders on both sides of the river, however, have grown more savvy - they understand that whichever 'side' makes the first 'mistake' will lose the media fight. They are at pains to show that they have taken all measures to ensure that there is no violence or intimidation over the coming days. I think this message has got across - but people are still nervous about what could happen. In any event, it was clear to me from my visit yesterday that KFOR and the KPS are ready - and more importantly, determined - to deal with any problems (in response to Howard's comments earlier, I agree fully that the community itself must take action for dealing with its own thugs: the 'internationals' can support this process, but local ownership of, and responsibility for, justice is vital). Still, Mitrovica will remain under the international media glare in the coming days.

Posted at 18:49 15 February 2008 by Ruairi O'Connell  |  Comments[2]

Outreach II

I was down in the village of Babljak/Bablak*, south of Pristina, on Friday. An encouraging visit.

Bablak's history demonstrates an interesting problem in Kosovo. In 1999, the Albanian villagers were driven out, and many of their homes were destroyed. In 2004, many of the Serbian villagers in the Pristina had their houses burnt. In both cases, it was people from outside the village who caused the problems.

Relations in the village now are much the same as ever . The villagers talk to each other, get on, and have similar concerns, mostly about unemployment. The head of the municipal administration recently visited the village. The K-Serb villagers told me that the visit had been 'super'; they were happy to receive guarantees from him and the local police chief - but were now looking to the local politicians to fulfill their promises.  But both Serbian and Albanian villagers are concerned that 'outsiders' will cause problems in their village. This is a lesson that we have learnt since 2004. In order to promote values of tolerance, and reconcile the communities, we need to focus less on the point of interaction between the communities (i.e. stop having multiethnic round tables) and deal more directly with each community. 

This leads me to some of the points that Rory and Stefan have made - I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

The first is the idea that the Kosovo institutions discriminate against Kosovo Serbs, and that Kosovo Serbs cannot leave their villages 'without the danger of being shot'. Clearly, immediately after the conflict, when NATO entered, life was hard for the Kosovo Serbs. Many left - either by choice, through fear, or by force.  There were revenge killings directed against the Kosovo Serbs who had chosen to stay. Progress was made; but the events of March 2004 were a big setback, when 19 people (Serbs and Albanians) were killed in riots across Kosovo.

However, the situation has improved since. Regarding K-Serb safety, it is true to say that many Kosovo Serbs feel insecure - the outreach programme is meant to help address this. But levels of inter-ethnic violence are low and decreasing. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Kosovo Serbs come to Pristina daily, mostly, but not exclusively, for work. People speak Serbian on the streets. People interact in the villages; I was at a point-to-point horse race south of Pristina last year, where Serbs took part alongside Albanians (I was the only foreigner there - the multi-ethnicity was spontaneous, not prompted by the international community). The story isn't the same across Kosovo; Serbs in North Mitrovica (the divided city in Northern Kosovo - see http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3650&l=1) do not feel safe to travel to South Mitrovica, and Albanians in the South (excluding those few tolerated in North Mitrovica) are prevented from crossing the river that divides the city by leather-jacketed thugs. But I can't agree that Serbs in Kosovo are in danger of being shot if they leave their homes; things have improved.

Equally, about the Kosovo government. I've frequently said in the past (including in the Kosovo media) that I'm not paid to lobby on behalf of the Kosovo government. They have got things wrong. But how one responds to problems is quite indicative. The riots of March 2004 were appalling. But the Kosovo government's reaction to it, I think, is interesting. Unprompted, they pledged to rebuild, from their own funds (the Kosovo budget even today is less than 1bn euro annually) every destroyed house and church. They have come through - although Church reconstruction is held up by disagreements in the committee designed to oversee the process, almost every house has been rebuilt.

The sense I got from  my current and previous work in the Balkans is that it is almost impossible to talk about the Balkans without people seeing the issue in a zero sum way; if you want to help Albanians, then you must be 'against' the Serbs.

It is clear that the Serbs have suffered too since the start of the 1990s. My Serb friends often tell me that the Serbs were Milosevic's biggest victims. I don't buy this. But I would agree that no-one has done more harm to the Serbs - whether in Serbia or elsewhere - than Milosevic and the people who carried out his policies. In any case, I am clear about what our (UK, Europe, my) long-term goal is - it's to get the whole of the region ready for EU membership. The only way for this to work, is to shed the zero-sum mentality.

* All Kosovo's villages, towns and cities have at least two names - in Serbian and Albanian, and sometimes also in Turkish - similar to Londonderry/Derry in Northern Ireland. The UN convention is to list both in English, putting the name used by the majority population first. We follow this convention, but it can be a bit clunky, especially in speech ("I went to Ferizaj/Urosevac the other day"), so I often mix it up - use one name first, then the other. This works in Kosovo (where everyone knows the various names), but can be confusing for outsiders at first.

Posted at 13:36 12 February 2008 by Ruairi O'Connell  |  Comments[3]

Outreach in Central Kosovo

As we approach the end of the 'final status' process, everyone in Kosovo is asking 'when?'.

For the Kosovo Serbs, this is a time of uncertainty. Many Serbs live in Northern Kosovo, or in and around the small towns of Gracanica and Strpce. But the majority of Kosovo's Serbs live in small, somewhat isolated villages; as one man told me today "we don't have any information - and don't know how much of that is disinformation".

So, working with the OSCE Mission in Kosovo (www.osce.org/kosovo),  we  put together a programme whereby each of these isolated villages would be matched with one of the 'country' offices . This would bring three benefits. The villages would have a 'buddy' in the international community, who could give them unmediated information. The villages would gain another advocate for their interests. And finally, it would ensure that the villages' concerns and perspectives were heard at the highest levels of the 'international community'.

As a British diplomat, I enjoy a specific relationship with these villages. At first, they were suspicious of me; they see the UK as one of the prime movers behind the airstrikes that  forced Milosevic's forces  out of Kosovo in 1999, and now see us in the vanguard of support for UN Special Envoy's proposal for Kosovo's supervised independence  (at http://www.unosek.org/unosek/en/statusproposal.html). But they  really appreciate that, even despite our political disagreements, we are willing to invest time and energy to look after their interests.
 
I spent yesterday in the small villages of Plementina, Crkveno Vodica and Babin Most, in Obiliq/Obilic municipality. These are mostly rural communities, poor, with little access to information. In most cases, people just want to see and hear that, even though they have problems,  the 'decision makers' are interested in what is happening to them. They also ask us to help with some small problems; in this case, we secured assurances from the local municipality that they would not change the names of the villages without the consent of their inhabitants (something vital for their own identity). But I also made one point to the villagers; we can sometimes help them with these issues, but wouldn't it be better if they had elected representatives who could raise these issues inside the institutions? In this light, the decision of the government in Belgrade to enforce a boycott of the Novemer 2007 local (as well as national) elections is even more damaging.
 

Posted at 10:52 01 February 2008 by Ruairi O'Connell  |  Comments[2]