19 December 2002

CONTENTS

Steiner interview: Not everything is going down in Kosovo (Koha Ditore/ Zëri)
Not everything is going down in Kosovo, is the evaluation of SRSG Michael Steiner after administering Kosovo for a year. The German diplomat, who arrived in Kosovo on 14 February 2002, says he is satisfied with achievements in Kosovo. Holding a pen bearing the inscription 'Kostunica' on it and in front of him on his desk UNMIK statistics on the progress in various fields, the UNMIK chief administrator sounds full of pride as he recounts the progress achieved.

'Compared to 12 months ago, things have changed. The climate is better, the political climate is better, even the papers are different, not all of them, but the majority. If they are different, then the public debate is different. There is progress. Kosovars are a dynamic society, they are very inventive,' said Michael Steiner in an interview given to the Kosovar papers.

Steiner bases his optimism on the optimistic face of the Kosovars. 'If you look at the faces, you can see that this is an optimistic society. Not everything is dim. Now it is fashionable to talk about downhills. Not everything here is going downhill. It is the identity of the Kosovars that is rising, which is important and very interesting, that deals with their past. Where can you find such a small place as Kosovo that has the attention of the world and has so many ties with the world because of the fact that there is international presence? This is unique. I cannot find this anywhere in the world, especially not in Europe. This is a good opportunity to have faster progress than in other countries,' he said.
What Steiner considers an achievement
Before Steiner started recounting the achievements, he said that these were achievements that Kosovars should be proud of. 'If you look at the year that has passed, you can see that we have a number of important achievements that Kosovars definitively have to be proud of,' he said. The forming of the Kosovo Government on 29 February he calls 'incredible' and stresses that he had only arrived on 14 February. He says he forgot about the return of prisoners from Serbia. With even greater pride, he speaks about the return to Prishtina of the 'Empress on the Throne' from the Belgrade Museum last May. He gets a sculpture from his office that was presented to him as a gift with the UNMIK inscription. 'This was made here in Kosovo and when we have senior officials visiting us, we present this figure as gift. I gave this figure to the head of the UN SC delegation, Chancellor Schröder and Fischer during my visit to Berlin, and Kofi Annan also received one,' said Steiner.

He reminded journalists that the Kosovo Trust Agency had been formed which will be in charge of privatization. 'We have had three and half years of discussion with our legal office in New York as how to deal with this issue, with all the problems regarding the status; now we have the regulation on privatization and the KTA,' he said. Another success is the crime rate going down and return of displaced persons. 'We have broken the trend. This is the first year we have more minority members returning and living in Kosovo, regardless of all the difficulties,' said Steiner.

One of the latest successes is the holding of local elections on 26 October, which Steiner evaluated as 'magnificent', and also the locating of the UNMIK administration in northern Mitrovica. Among the achievements, Steiner mentioned the re-starting of B-2 at KEK. 'We said in June that by December we would start. It is a fresh start; everyone is nervous about it, including me,' he says and adds that he had just talked to KEK manager Joseph Rieder to get information on electricity production. 'If we look at the situation from where we started this year and where we are now, regardless of the bad weather and cases and incidents that are happening, as the one Friday night with the car…with all these steps, it is not so bad,' Steiner ends his evaluation.
Leaders of Kosovo institutions are learning their business
The UNMIK chief administrator expressed a limited delight in his relationship with Kosovar leaders. 'There is a strategic misunderstanding, not among the normal people in Kosovo, but among some leaders. They believe that standards that we are constantly discussing are only a precondition for discussions on final status. However, this isn't the essence of things, standards are an issue on their own,' he said. About the leaders, he said they are still learning their craft. 'The first issue is that they haven't been existing in an institutional form for a very long time. Naturally, you had leaders in the past; however, the prime minister, the president and the president of the assembly are here since February. They are in a difficult position; they have limited resources to learn this business. Second, it is a natural reflex to say you want more power. I believe this is natural and no one will complain about this. On the other hand, we are in the process of transition. It is in accordance with the constitution; not all governing can be handed over because we are still in the process of forming these institutions from nothing. They want more. They aren't capable of fulfilling all the responsibilities of self-governing. They are learning, some faster some slower. I am not saying that we are perfect and that they don't know anything; this would be foolish. There are many fields where Kosovars know more about the situation and have almost the same experience as the internationals,' said Steiner.

There are some natural differences but I am satisfied with the government
It is natural that Kosovar leaders, including the assembly, want more competencies, evaluates Michael Steiner, but he stresses that his responsibility is toward the UN. 'This is natural. The ones that are responsible from the international community should try and transfer competencies as soon as possible; I have my responsibilities toward the UN SC in the issues that are reserved for me. They expect this from me and I have a responsibility toward the only legitimacy in this place and that is UN Security Resolution 1244; therefore we have to fulfill it. Therefore not only the leaders have their responsibility toward Kosovo and UN SC but also I have them,' he said. 'A mechanism must be found that will ensure a process of transferring of powers and we have to go through go this together. Time after time, we could have disagreements, but, all in all, the relations under these conditions are very good. I am satisfied. There are differences, but that is natural,' he said.

Time has come for your leaders to talk to Belgrade
The UNMIK chief administrator won't agree to talk about a time frame for the start discussions on Kosovo's final status, even though at the beginning of his mandate he said he would deal with the status during his mandate as SRSG. 'I cannot talk about a time frame. In Germany, we would say that the path to the goal is important and not the goal. I would have to say that the UN SC would decide in the end. This is logical, there is no other way, because we base ourselves on 1244; and 1244 describes the situation here as it is now, and when we arrive there we must have the blessing of the UN SC. This is the body that creates changes in international law and makes possible reflections towards the UN,' he said; and when asked how to get to this point, he said, 'The answer that I give is that Kosovar leaders must talk to everyone, including here naturally Belgrade.'

'For a certain period of time, there was reason to say that UNMIK should deal with this; however you cannot have it both ways, on the one hand, to say that I am grown up and want more power and, on the other hand, to say, no, I don't want to talk to Belgrade. This is contradictory. If you say that you are a grown up, then you cannot close your eyes. This dialogue is important,' said Steiner, and he gave as an example the relations between Bonn and Eastern Germany. 'Every serious issues was talked over with Moscow and Eastern Berlin, because we had to address practical issues,' he said.

According to Steiner, talks with Belgrade will show the level of maturity among Kosovar leaders. 'If you have to deal with issues that are in the direct interest of the people, then you have to take those issues and discuss them; you cannot hide. I believe that time has come…that institutions and leaders talk with everyone, including Belgrade, on the practical issues of the moment. You asked me about final status. I said it earlier that the way to reach final status is that we need to have direct dialogue between Prishtina and Belgrade on the issue of status. The most important thing is that neither side has a right of veto, to do things unilaterally. Belgrade doesn't have a veto in these talks. I am not saying that these talks have to bring a solution with a consensus; however the talks are necessary,' he said.

The UNMIK chief administrator stressed that without these talks things would be even more difficult, and, according to him, the leaders are obliged to find the easiest solutions.

Top

Surroi: Seeking the future in 1989 (Koha Ditore)

Koha Ditore carries the second part of what the it refers to as a Christmas letter to SRSG Michael Steiner from the paper's publisher, Veton Surroi, who wrote:
4. I am going to talk about KEK because it is a very good illustration of the concept of governing in Kosovo. UNMIK has spent three years and the international community has spent 500 million euros, concentrated on building something from the past. Kosovo B was inaugurated in the 80's; it marked the growth of Kosovar society. New engineers were shown on TV, who had graduated from Prishtina University and were showing this modern day miracle that produces electricity. Beside Kosovo A stood Kosovo B, Tito's political symbol, Westinghouse Generators alongside ones from eastern Germany; Albanian and Serb workers embracing one other, producing electricity, smoke and ashes.

The UNMIK mission was from the beginning dedicated to the emergency phase, creating electrical energy from equipment ruined by the nonprofessional administrators brought in by Milosevic. But in doing this they set out their own aim: to achieve the 80's.

And, as we have seen, we haven't achieved this yet, but perhaps with more money this could happen.

Along with a power plant for a self-governing society, our society is moving forward in forming institutions that belong to the Obiliq era of the 80's. An Assembly and Government that have less authority to make decisions than the Political Centre [UNMIK]. In the 80's and a decade earlier, the Centre, the Party, made the decisions. Now, no matter what this assembly or the government thinks (if they think at all), you are the Centre.

Therefore, it is not important what a minister says or even the prime minister, it is important what Energy Committee says, specifically, what you say.

5. Things are even worse than they look in today's darkness. With all the miracles that Michael's super manager can work, current efforts are useless because the demand cannot be met. Looked at from a simple, logical point of view, Kosovo A was 20 years old when Kosovo B was inaugurated. Meanwhile, a total revolution had taken place, not only in Kosovo, not only the death of communism and greater unification of Europe, but the death of an industrial society, as we have known it. On your desk, there are reports brought to you everyday by international bureaucrats who are amazed that Kosovo can spend 100 MW/h more of electric energy than at the same time last year. People that came here six months ago and will leave in six months and were not touched by the revolution we lived through: their minds operate in the category of furnishing energy to a population that has just come out of a war.

So the energy concept, which your committee also has, is attaining the positions of the 80's. We have to get back to December 1984, when the temperature dropped to minus 26 Celsius, but there were no power cuts.

Given that you are in the position you are, imagine if you had to make decisions that would have consequences for the next ten or twenty years - and this is the minimum for decisions that relate to energy policy. What is the Kosovo you see? A Kosovo that should be happy that it managed to produce the same amount of energy it produced in 1989.

6. Let me tell you what I think is going to happen from the decision brought by your Energy Committee. Within this decade, power plant Kosovo A, this old donkey that has been brought to life every time we had to pass through another winter, will die. We will remain with Kosovo B, this socialist victory, which every year costs a great deal of money to repair. The best-case scenario is that our electricity distribution net will be privatized and then whoever in Europe has electricity will sell it to us, with the great likelihood that the price will be lower than the price of what is being produced locally. This net will be privatized when there are assurances that the citizens will pay their bills, and it is toward this we must devote the remaining years of this decade.

The end of this decade will mark the end of the industrial society, as we know it: with the closing down of Obiliq, Trepça and Feronikel, Kosovo will lose 70% of its own industrial production. It will also be noted that Kosovar society has not succeeded in transforming its economy: in a parody of something attributed to Lenin, that electrification and industrialization result in socialism, the transformation of the post-industrial society can't be managed without electricity. Eventually, we will have less need for electricity and fewer people able to pay it.

The final consequence of the lack of political energy will be Kosovo's inability to stand on its own two feet.

Top

Shala: Compromise and maximum requests (Zëri)

Zëri carries on page one an editorial by Blerim Shala, in which he says that Serbs have priorities in making decisions on Kosovo's final status.

Even if in meetings with international officials it has been expressed that it isn't time to discuss Kosovo's final status, Serb leaders never stop calculating the various options, which would overlook Kosovo's concerns, according to the majority of the citizens of Kosovo.

The logic that dominates with Serb politicians is that Kosovo's final status must be a compromise between Albanian and Serb intentions. According to Belgrade, the process that should conclude this status is for both sides 'to defer from their maximal requests'. Specifically, if the Albanians say Kosovo must become independent state, above the status of self-determination, and if Serbs say that Kosovo must have autonomy settled within Serbia, then a solution should be found somewhere in between (we are talking about business); and, as Mr. Covic proposes, Kosovo could get a status like the Serb Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Covic and some others are very imaginative about creating exclusive decisions for Kosovo's final status, where they find some other (Serb) options for Kosovo's independence that are unacceptable.

In the end, Covic proposed that Kosovo's independence would be unacceptable. In this case, the Serb side has certain priorities because for Mr. Covic everything, except independence, is acceptable; and we still haven't tried to show that Kosovo's independence, in reality, is a political compromise and not a maximal request, and that with Kosovo's independence, we intend to end the Albanian matter in the Balkans.

Greek presidency of EU ready to open issue of Kosovo's Status (Koha Ditore)

Koha Ditore ran a commentary by its correspondent Augustin Palokaj who says that Greece will make the Balkans an EU priority again.

During its presidency of the EU, Greece will continue to have among its top priorities the enlargement process. After negotiations ended in Copenhagen and 10 more states were invited to join the EU family, a formal agreement for members to sign for entrance to the EU will take place during the Greek presidency, which starts in April.

In a presentation of the EU priorities during Greece's presidency, Foreign Ministry George Papandreou explained that Greece has chosen a sparrow as a symbol for its presidency, since the sparrow brings luck, hope and prosperity in spring, but that it is also sensitive.

Among other priorities, Greece has presented EU's institutional reforms and the discussion of migration as a fragile part of the European civil society, but also the convention for the future of Europe that is due to end with the summit in Thessaloniki.

When it comes to the foreign politics, under the Greek presidency, the main concern of the EU will be on conditions in the Middle East and Iraq.

Greece will put the Balkans issue back on the agenda as one of its main priorities. Foreign Minister Papandreou also clarified this in Brussels by adding, 'Our neighbors on the other side of the Balkans will someday join us in the EU.'

He said that by the end of the Greek presidency, in late June, a EU summit would be held for the Balkan region, known as continuing the 'Zagreb Process' in Thessaloniki.

According to the Greek Foreign Ministry, this summit on the Balkans will present the opportunity to push for speeding up the process of reforms and also the right of European integration.

However, the Greek Foreign Ministry also announced that during its presidency the EU would also attend to the issue of Kosovo. 'I agree that the Balkans can't be integrated without solving existing political issues, which is the question of Kosovo,' said Papandreou. He said the open question of status in Kosovo would be determined by conditions on the ground and, in order to fulfill these conditions, there must be cooperation from others.

Italy takes over the EU presidency after Greece.

Top

Beqiri: We oppose decentralization on the basis of ethnicity (Zëri)

Zëri reports that OSCE Head of Mission, Ambassador Pascal Fieschi, visited the Prishtina Municipal Assembly where he met with the MA chairman, Ismet Beqiri. The man who presided over the institution that organized the elections last October is doing a tour of Kosovo, visiting all the municipalities.

Fieschi says the main purpose of the visits is to look over the system and see how the cooperation is working out, and how the OSCE is responding to this. Fieschi and Beqiri had the opportunity to discuss decentralization and the municipal administration in Kosovo, Zëri reports.

'The decentralization process in Kosovo is in its first phase and it will continue as a process in the future,' Fieschi told Zëri.

'We are for decentralization, but we oppose decentralization on an ethnic basis,' Beqiri said. He also said, 'An authentic decentralization implies positive handing over of competencies from central to local government in the municipalities, and later on to smaller administrative units. But we understand that decentralization in Kosovo is still in embryo and more time is needed to produce results.'

Beqiri further said that transparence at the MAs would increase when there is more cooperation and teamwork among the representatives and all political parties that participate in assemblies around Kosovo.

Rieder and Independent Union of Kosovo Energy become partners (Koha Ditore)

KEK's international managing director, Josef Rieder, and the Independent Union of Kosovo Energy (SPEK) head Sherif Fejzullahu, signed a collective agreement this Wednesday, reports Koha Ditore.

'We have signed a document which is very important for KEK's future. Now we have a directive on how the Union and KEK's management will cooperate. On each agreement, we should find a compromise, but for what we have achieved, this is a very good sign for our future,' said Rieder.

According to Rieder, there is no winner and no loser. 'Every one of us who works for KEK's future is a winner,' he said.

Fejzullahu said that both sides were now determined to make an agreement based on employment law and that 'it is important that now we are partners'. KEK's strategic director, Ali Hamiti, said that this is the first collective contract to be signed in Kosovo. 'It is a contract, which describes relations between employer and employee,' he said.

Top

Steiner and Meta signed letter on free trade (FONET)

UNMIK chief Michael Steiner and Albanian Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Ilir Meta have signed in Pristina a "letter of intention" that envisages free trade between Kosovo and Albania, Pristina Radio 21 reports. Steiner expressed satisfaction over the signing of this document. Assessing that much had been achieved in Kosovo over the past three years, Meta called on all communities that live in this region to unite and tolerate each other. He supported Steiner's plan for the integration of Mitrovica and efforts to strengthen unity among Albanians and Serbs that refers to cooperation with representatives of all institutions formed as of today.

Server: Conditions not ripe for discussing final status (BETA)

The conditions for raising the question of the final status of Kosovo are still not ripe in Kosovo, in Belgrade, and in the UNSC, the Director of the Balkan initiative at the American Institute for Peace, Daniel Serwer, told Beta. "The Europeans and Americans should think about the options and discuss them, and I hope that Belgrade and Pristina will also discuss the resolution of some practical problems. We should all be prepared for negotiations on the final status, not to commence them," said Serwer. He agreed with the stand expressed by UNMIK chief Michael Steiner and UN SC representatives who recently visited Pristina and Belgrade, i.e. the first point being the priority of reaching of the standards set for Kosovo; and the second being the talks on the status. Asked whether he favored an independent Kosovo, Serwer replied in the negative.