UNMIK/PR/864
Tuesday, 05 November 2002

SRSG Michael Steiner's Speech to Donors' Conference, Brussels, 5 November

UNMIK is a strong and successful partnership between the UN, the OSCE and the EU. These are the institutional pillars that support our joint endeavour.
The success of the Mission also stems from the excellent partnership between us and KFOR, to whom many of you contribute troops.
And increasingly - it's the partnership between UNMIK and Kosovo's new, democratic institutions that is shaping the future success of Kosovo.
The message I want you to take away today is that we succeed when we work in partnership. So I would like to focus on building on our partnership, a partnership that involves all the people of Kosovo in creating a brighter, multiethnic future.

Partnership for success

Let's briefly cast our minds back to 1999. When we first talked about rebuilding Kosovo, we talked about shattered villages, collapsing infrastructure and broken lives. About a society without institutions, an economy without rules.

Today Kosovo is a different Kosovo.
Some obvious examples:
· More than 40.000 houses rebuilt by you the donors, and at least the same number by the people of Kosovo themselves
· More than 450 schools and hundreds of clinics were refurbished.
· Roads have been fixed and the water and electricity supply massively improved

It's not just about bricks and mortar. It's also about building institutions; building communities and about building trust - mental peacekeeping that is.
In March this year, I convened and hosted a meeting of Finance Ministers from the region to attack cigarette smuggling - a regional problem that threatens our security, that threatens our budgets and that threatens the rule of law.
The conference achieved a consensus among the assembled Ministers on the measures we needed to take together. Just two weeks ago UNMIK Police and Customs seized 250 tonnes of contraband cigarettes in a single operation.
But, for me, the most significant moment of a successful day came - as it must in the Balkans - over coffee, when Minister Sadriu and the Serbian Minister of Finance Mr. Djelic sat together outside the Grand Hotel.
We had a dialogue that was wholly, utterly, unimaginable in 1999: but a reality in 2002. A measure of just how far Kosovo's society - and Serbia's - have moved forward since you last met here.
For all of this, the credit has to go to the international community and to the people of Kosovo themselves. Working together in partnership, we have achieved more - and more quickly - than I think anyone could have predicted in 1999.

The job is not finished

At the same time that we note our successes, we must immediately recognize that these achievements have not reached all Kosovans.
Making the right to return a reality is the greatest unmet challenge of the international community's engagement in Kosovo.
Members of Kosovo's smaller communities have not yet returned to their homes, and most of those who stayed in Kosovo live in conditions that remain unacceptable. We must extend the benefits of progress to all of Kosovo's communities.
It is inconceivable that we leave the job of building a multi-ethnic Kosovo undone. This is a matter of protecting the investment already made. At stake is whether Kosovo will be a multi-ethnic society looking to Europe, or an isolated, anachronistic place left in the past. Failure to address the issue of minority returns would, moreover, water the seedlings of potential future conflicts that could destabilize the entire region.
Let's focus for a moment on the economy. Kosovo is still the poorest part of Europe. Twelve percent of its population live in absolute poverty - poverty by world standards. We export next to nothing and receive virtually no foreign investment.
The infrastructure's better than it was - but far from adequate for a modern European economy. It's far from clear where the jobs are going to come from in the future, especially when the bars, restaurants, car workshops, petrol stations and building firms begin to lose business as the international presence is reduced.

So far as the political dimension is concerned, the municipal elections of ten days ago represent a step forward. And I want to take the opportunity here to salute those leaders who had the vision and courage to encourage Kosovo's Serbs to join in Kosovo's path towards democracy. And, of course, to salute those who exercised their precious right to vote and who now have the chance to build a partnership with other communities to make Kosovo the place that we all want it to be.
The Serbs of Mitrovica, by not voting, have lost an opportunity which Serbs elsewhere in Kosovo have grasped. That's a cause for regret, but it will not remotely deter me from pursuing the vision of a multiethnic Kosovo that we all share.
Quite the opposite. Encouraged by the leaders of all the major parties and coalitions of Kosovo last Friday I invited the Council Of Europe to develop a concept for decentralisation that brings government closer to the people and people closer to government.
I am also determined to solve the problem of the vacuum of legitimacy in northern Mitrovica.
Another vital dimension is security. Let's be clear: this is a major success story. A partnership between KFOR, the - multiethnic - Kosovo Police Service and UNMIK has delivered massive improvements in security for all Kosovo's people - including smaller communities - over the last three years.
Freedom of movement has improved. Throughout Kosovo acts of violence on ethnic grounds have massively decreased.
But we all acknowledge the fragility of our gains: just two weeks ago, a bus carrying Serb pensioners was stoned in Peja/Pec - a scandalous act that attracted immediate condemnation by the whole of Kosovo society. And the fact that there are still enclaves in Europe in 2002 is a shame. Yet I also saw first-hand how much it meant to those same Serb pensioners when UNMIK Police swiftly arrested five suspects including the alleged ringleader.
I raise these political challenges because security, political progress and economic development are deeply inter-connected. The creation of a multiethnic Kosovo demands a partnership from all of us - UNMIK, Government, all the communities, our neighbours and donors - just as the creation of a prosperous Kosovo does.
Let me just give one small example of how security, economic opportunity and sustainability are linked. - A few months ago, as a result of an improved security assessment, I removed the road-checks around the Serb community in Gracanica. A donor contribution to improve the road itself made Gracanica a safer place.
An immediate result of that was that Kosovo Albanians and Serbs found it much easier to do business together. And doing business, especially amongst the pragmatic people of Kosovo, is one of the best possible ways to break down barriers and to ensure the economic viability of communities like Gracanica.
We need more of these examples: and you the donors are an indispensable part of the partnership that will produce them.

Building on success

I believe that if we use the next few years to build on our success, then we can put Kosovo decisively on the path towards a future in Europe.
And building on our success means forging a new partnership between you, the donor community, and the Government of Kosovo. I am committed to making a success of the transfer of responsibility to Kosovo's own institutions.
And I am delighted to be able to stand here today with Bajram Rexhepi, Kosovo's first democratically-elected Prime Minister.
I am also delighted to be able to introduce the Prime Minister's ministerial colleague, Milorad Todorovic, who will have an opportunity to present the aspirations of Kosovo's displaced Serbs and other communities to return to Kosovo to participate in the partnership between communities that a new Kosovo needs.
But to make further political progress in Kosovo, the Government needs, now perhaps more than ever, your help. Your help to deliver jobs. Your help to deliver a decent education for its young people. Your help to create sustainable opportunities for people who wish to return to Kosovo.
And the Government particularly needs your help to be able to comply with the benchmarks which I have set out for it.
These benchmarks are the preconditions for continuing down the road that will allow us to resolve Kosovo's status.
My mantra is "standards before status". Whatever Kosovo's political status will be in the future, it must be a multi-ethnic, integrated Kosovo where all its people can live in security and dignity.
To move towards Europe requires institutions of a European standard. It requires deepening the rule of law. And it requires creation of a vibrant market-based economy. To achieve these standards requires a new partnership between you and Kosovo's Government.
Prime Minister Rexhepi and later the Ministerial Coordinator for Returns Mr. Todorovic will speak for the government. Seeing where we have come from: Doesn't this speak for itself.