CONTENTS:
A BROTHEL IN THE CENTRE OF PRISTINA
ARE KFOR SOLDIERS DYING
FROM URANIUM?
THE CELEBRATION, PAVEMENT AND GARBAGE
ENCLAVES-
METASTASIS OF SERBIA IN KOSOVO, OR SECURITY ZONES
A BROTHEL IN THE CENTRE OF PRISTINA
Zëri carried on page six a report on prostitution in Kosovo.
"Good evening we have to check you out," are the words of a security guard standing in front of bar in center of Pristina. After being checked by the security guard every person without real knowledge as to where they are really going, can slowly step down to the bar's basement. However, the astonishment (especially for the December festivities) awaits you when you step down to the basement.
"Please do not sit here, because from this angle you cannot see anything you can sit at the other side where you can see everything the show will start in ten minutes," are the words of bar keeper to the guests. It happened so. After ten minutes on the podium for the "art" of strip teasing came out the "merchandise" from former Soviet countries.
Striptease and prostitution
At the beginning of the show, Tanja comes up to the guests and in a sweet voice asks the customers what would they like to drink. She is also the guide answering questions to the customers as for example "how much does a girl cost"?
Striptease and prostitution are present everywhere in the world. However, there are rules and regulations how any of the activities should be conducted. In Kosovo according to the laws before 1989 (laws applied today in Kosovo) these activities are prohibited and neither IAC nor Bernard Kouchner released any regulations concerning this issue. Tanja said that "legally" at the bar where she is working only striptease is conducted and the maximum that the customer can be offered is companion during the night by the girls, "there is no prostitution" said Tanja and leaves to serve the few gusts in the bar.
During the whole time, the "Boss" of the girls stands and welcomes and sees the guests off. "I suggest that you stay for a bit longer because this is the best part of the show now the strippers will remove all of their clothes," he tells some of the guests that were preparing to leave. It happened as he said. The girls took their clothes off. The "Boss" in his forties was "explaining the situation" to the guests what was happening in the podium of the basement of the bar where lights were shining, a scene that reminds you of scenes in Asian movies.
"I told you before that there is no prostitution here only striptease and companionship with the girls," said Tanja (that is her pseudonym because of security reasons). After we offered her some money without her "Boss" seeing us, she told us more about their mission here. "OK we offer our occasional customers only the pleasure of watching us undress. If customers want our embraces, they can get them for 20 DM. However, the prostitute goes with those customers that we suggest," adds Tanja and she said that these are regular customers which they know very well. "We charge 70 DM per hour and we split this in half with our "Boss".
"We live a totally different life from other ordinary girls," said the Ukrainian prostitute and adds that Kosovo is her third place where she practiced her "profession" after Romania and Macedonia where she worked before. The blonde beauty said that she started her sex life when she was only fourteen. "My family's misfortune and conflicts that came out of not having enough money brought me to the position to start seeing people that had money".
"Now I still roam around from one place to another it all depends on my controllers. Others profit from me. For my sexual favors, I earn 30 DM, even though the clients pay 100 DM, the other part goes to the "Boss" said she, who has only one dream to get away from Balkan countries somewhere to the west.
ARE KFOR SOLDIERS DYING FROM URANIUM?
Mediterranean countries blame NATO for using depleted uranium during the war in Kosovo and thus damaging the health damages of its soldiers in Kosovo. Media in Italy, Spain and Portugal have reported that several NATO soldiers have died in Kosovo from radiation. Previously, it was concluded that they suffered from leukemia. In Portugal, the General Staff of the Armed Forces has decided to send a commission of experts to Kosovo. They are expected to investigate if radiation from uranium is health dangerous, reported Zëri on page one.
The decision to send the commission of experts came after the death of a Portuguese soldier, who had served a year ago under the KFOR-led peacekeeping mission in Kosovo. According to the medical examinations, typical symptoms of radioactive radiation were found in the body of the deceased soldier.
According to Italian media, eleven Italian peacekeepers suffer from leukemia. Five of them had served in Kosovo and Bosnia. It is supposed that they were exposed to the NATO ammunition with uranium. Sergio Matarella, the Italian Minister of Defense, has also ordered an investigating commission of five members.
In Spain, the private television Antenna - 3 reported that two Spanish soldiers, after coming back from Kosovo, were suffering from leukemia. One of them passed away. However, the Spanish Minister of Defense in Madrid denied every case of leukemia-diseased Spanish peacekeepers in Kosovo.
Immediately after the bombing campaign, the North-Atlantic Alliance admitted having used uranium radioactive ammunition.
The ammunition used during the bombing in Kosovo and Serbia, which is called depleted uranium, was also used during the Gulf War in 1991. There are indications that uranium caused the disease of 130,000 American soldiers that suffer from the Gulf Syndrome. 500 of them soldiers have passed away.
Despite the wide debate in Italy there is still no scientific answer as to whether the region of Kosovo and Bosnia are contaminated. According to Italian media, the most dangerous area in Kosovo is the southwestern part - Dukagjin, where Italian soldiers are deployed.
NATO: ONE DAY THE KUMANOVO AGREEMENT WILL CHANGE
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed Tuesday that the idea for changing the Kumanovo Military - Technical Agreement which determines the security zone along the Kosovo - Serbia border is being considered, reported Koha Ditore on page two.
Commenting on the issue, Francois Rivasaux, spokesman for the Ministry, was quoted as saying, "changing the agreement is a part of the idea which is being considered. We want to find a solution for the joint agreement which would enable a normal life as soon as possible. We said that we want to get to this point, if possible through the existing procedure. If the changing of the agreement is necessary then this is a decision that has to be considered".
Diplomatic sources in Paris assess that the eventual changes to the agreement would cause certain political and legal doubts. On one hand, the changes have to be approved by NATO, a fact which would make the procedure difficult, whereas on the other hand given the fact that the agreement is mentioned in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 which installed the international administration in Kosovo, its change would imply certain changes to the resolution itself.
A NATO spokesman told the Belgrade-based "Beta" news agency on Tuesday that the change of the agreement could be discussed one day, but that for the time being it is still too early. "This idea is pending. We think that it might be considered but today it is not in the agenda," he added.
THE CELEBRATION, PAVEMENT AND GARBAGE
Zëri on page one carried a column by Mufail Ismaili commenting on the present and future of Kosovo.
Yesterday you could walk in Pristina by listening to your own footsteps. What is happening to this city was obvious in the great emptiness. The emptiness, like a great wind has blown away the sheet. It was as if you see a body, which has fallen in a coma due to wounds. It was something like that. Did the president of Pristina take a walk through his city yesterday? Anyway, a walk during Bajram was enough to prove that the local elections have not achieved a thing until now.
The elected say that they do not have anything in their hands. Why do they not take things in their hands? It is known that the democracy is a procedure, where it must still be talked about the procedure of taking and applying decisions. However, if we Kosovars have done our part of the work, why do the internationals not do theirs?
"What does Pristina's rubbish have to do with its final status?" asked someone. It has to do with it. The longer the status issue remains open, the more rubbish there will be - rubbish in the policy, economy, trade, education, health and everywhere- even on the pavements.
We are also talking about the final status of our pavements. Will we be able to walk as humans? Will we be able to walk as humans along the Ibri Bridge? Will we be afraid of the police? Will we have to put up resistance once more and fight in order to walk freely?
Will we have the right to change our president if no one removes the rubbish from our pavements? All answers are still open just like the wounds.
ENCLAVES- METASTASIS OF SERBIA IN KOSOVO, OR SECURITY ZONES
For many things and for many people the beginning of giving the first identity cards was like distributing long-awaited gifts a week before the celebrations and the year, which we are entering, reported Zëri on page one.
This administrative act made UNMIK similar to Santa Claus, and our citizens similar to happy children. This visualization may sound very paradoxical because of the latest political developments during the last few days. Even with the expression "This is the identity card of Kosovo's state", many citizens waiting in row to receive the new identity cards, were convinced that with this act Serbia's administrative government in Kosovo is ending, something holds our citizen a slave of insecurity.
In fact, this spontaneous expression would have a full meaning if our political reality were not followed with double situations, which destabilize the citizens' calmness. Many developments inside and around Kosovo continue to hold the tensions high of our people. If only we mention the bloody events in northern Kosovo, the pre-announcements of Serb elections in Kosovo, the tense situation in eastern Kosovo, the departing of Kouchner and arrival of Haekkerup, the political enigmatic murders in Kosovo, the beginning of giving the identity cards, the preparations for Kosovo's interim constitution, Kofi Annan's pre-announcements for a possible confederation of the three units, the fear of the of American forces eventually departing Kosovo, not only these movements show how enigmatic is the political rebus of the Kosovar reality.
Apart from several analytical comments and columns, it seems as though all these developments reveal a political anemia of our political entities, which try to turn the silence into a style now demoded. The Kosovar citizen, who is facing this situation and is under pressure due to continual degradation of the institutional life and public services, has nothing else to do than put his trust in the superstition "maybe it will get better" or in the strong symbolism summarized in the expression "Bondsteel is the new capital city of the Balkans".
It is the last time to escape from waiting for the process to happen without an effort of ours to understand their anamnesis and afterwards to create a strategy of acting, because it is very little understandable that it is enough for the train to be on tracks and then to run by itself.
Continuing to hold Kosovo's status dangling is one of the main generators of dilemmas and in creating various scenarios. The Kosovar society must be freed from holding the sword of democracy in their back. The democratization should not be shown and imposed as a threat by anyone, it must be offered as a possibility because it does not depend only on the Kosovars. In this process, the Kosovars must rely more and the support must be without equivocation, which damages the entire process.
It is more than clear that the developments of the latest events in Serbia have increased the complexity of Kosovo's problem due to the reason that the Serb colonialist policy has found a tactical shelter. In case the international community shows mutual understanding toward these social contractions in Serbia, this fact should not cause political confusion to our entities, on the opposite, it should dynamize the thought and political act in front of these changes.
Facing the majority's responsibility does not dare create inferiority; it creates advantages. The respecting of human rights must remain essential in our political approach, because they are the bases of Kosovo's freedom.
The discussion in the last meeting organized by Kaci held a citizenly braveness. However, it seems as though many things remain unclear in the Albanian- Serb relations, because it is known that with this report the silences of the nationalists in this part of the Balkans are broken. in this context, it is asked what do the Serb enclaves represent? Are they remaining or created metastasis by the Serb state or are they security zones. Nevertheless, not in the first case or the second can a common appointed democratic body be elected because we have to do with cases of expelled unities, where the rights of one of the sides are excluded.
From the point of view of Serb elections in Kosovo, if any efforts are taken for solving the complicated political rebus, then we can say that the internationals' allowance has the meaning of a double message. However, the Serb elections in Kosovo carry another paradox, because Kosovo's Serbs vote, and the Albanians of Presevo, Bujanovac and Medvedja, as residents of Serbia do not vote. Perhaps, this shows best the level of Albanian -Serb problematic relation.
The Serb elections should have been more unanimously opposed by our entities, not maybe starting from the unclear sovereignty, however from the danger of return of the Serb government influence and the continuing of instrumentalism of Kosovo's Serbs, which challenges the internationals' efforts of creating a more democratic environment.
Therefore, it seems as though the symbol of giving the identity cards with all its important weight, paled in front of all these unhopeful processes for Kosovo's issue. The year's last week will surely be festive, however the beginning of a symbolic year will surely be overwhelming.