Kosovo - the Way Ahead
By Hans Haekkerup, SRSG - UNMIK
BLIC, 2 August 2001

Last week I signed a working agreement with the Sarajevo based International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP). This agreement highlights the importance that UNMIK places on finding Kosovo's missing. As part of the agreement, UNMIK will be able to draw on ICMP's vast field experience, its DNA testing capabilities and its computer database and software in solving Kosovo's missing persons cases. The grief of families missing loved ones is something common to all Kosovars - it crosses ethnic barriers and spares no one. This grief and anger also stands as an impediment to improving relations between ethnic communities. This is why finding Kosovo's missing is a top priority for UNMIK.

Thirty-three new gravesites have been identified in Kosovo and will be excavated by the UNMIK Police and the ICMP in the coming year. There remain 1,256 bodies that the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) has yet to identify and there are bodies being unearthed in recently found mass graves in Serbia. We hope that these sources will provide some answers.

But UNMIK will never be able to provide all of the answers without the engagement of the people of Kosovo in the process.

We hope the families of the missing will do all they can to help us in our work. This means cooperating with the police to give details about missing family members. Without this information, even the most sophisticated identification methods won't work.

Also last week, the Belgrade based Contact Group for Missing Persons visited a UN gravesite for unidentified bodies in the town of Suva Reka. The visit was made as part of an effort to dispel rumors that a new mass grave had surfaced in Kosovo. The visit also highlighted the complexity of the issue of the missing in Kosovo. Not five kilometers from where the Serbian delegation sought assurances about their missing, lies the site where 43 Albanian women and children were killed in March of 1999. These bodies are still missing. The proximity of these two sites sums up what UNMIK is dealing with: two communities who once lived side by side; who are now dealing with great pain; and who are ultimately the only ones able to provide each other with the real answers to heal these wounds.

With the missing, as with other issues, UNMIK is often accused by both Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Serbian leaders of prioritizing the demands of one side over the other. I refute this. UNMIK works to improve the lives of all in Kosovo. What is true, however, is that with the issue of the missing, as with every other major issue, it is the people of Kosovo who hold the keys to solving them, not UNMIK. Accusations and blame will in the end bring nothing. If Kosovo truly wants to live peacefully and democratically in a modern Europe, engagement by all communities on every level and on every issue is the only way to move forward.

The FRY Advisor to the President on the issue of missing persons, Gradimir Nalic, spoke of this during his visit to the Suva Reka cemetery last week. He said that his experience in Bosnia and Croatia had taught him that it was only after the families of the missing worked together that the real results began to appear. Of course there are many in Kosovo who know this and want to work together. In January of this year, Kosovo's Serbian and Albanian family associations held a meeting in the Government Building in Pristina. The meeting was long and tough, but no one walked out of it. The families were able to share some of their common feelings and they agreed about the need for support. They also agreed to meet again. I remind them that this meeting room is still available.

With regard to security for Kosovo's Serb population, the situation remains very complex. But again, we cannot do it alone. The three suspects for the Nis bus bombing remain in detention as we amass evidence to bring to a court of law. This adherence to law and procedure, although time consuming, is one of the underpinnings of a true democracy.

As with the missing, security for the citizens of Kosovo is a two-way street. But in order for the police to do their job they must have the engagement and participation of the people. The code of silence that exists in both Kosovo Albanian and Serbian communities undermines any accomplishments that UNMIK may achieve in this arena.

The mantra from Belgrade is that UNMIK and KFOR have done nothing to create an atmosphere in which democratic elections can take place in Kosovo. I challenge this. We have done much to set Kosovo on a modern, democratic course including passing anti-terrorism laws; using partnerships to take advantage of technologies in our search for the missing; creating a court system with the help of international judges; signing anti-discriminatory housing laws and putting in place a technical plan for the return of Kosovo's Serbs and other minorities to Kosovo. But for all these measures to be truly successful, there has to be a degree of trust and cooperation from both sides.

In North Mitrovica the actions of the lawless are greeted with unspoken tolerance. Yet the people of North Mitrovica are ready for a real police force, not street-law enforced by intimidation. Since UNMIK Police have begun enforcing traffic laws on the streets of North Mitrovica, "Dobro!" was heard by our officers time and time again as citizens gave quiet but firm approval of their actions. The people of North Mitrovica seem to have grown weary of the threats and empty protests. It is time to end the influence of those who attempt to rule outside the system.

Many Albanian Kosovars seem equally tired of the violence and intimidation exerted by certain elements of society. When we recently suspended five members of the Kosovo Protection Corps for suspected involvement in criminal issues, public reaction was one of acceptance. There seems to be a growing desire to put a stop to those who do not have the best interests of Kosovo at heart.

Concerning the return of the Serbian population to Kosovo, Albanian Kosovar leaders have endorsed the principle of returns. Kosovo's ethnic problems were not created overnight and thus will not be solved in one day. A real, inter-ethnic dialogue and an active engagement between "returnees" and "receiving communities" lies at the heart of the success of the Return Program. It will be an arduous, step-by-step process, but we will arrive with the participation of everyone in the process.

With regard to property rights, UNMIK has just passed a housing regulation that bars the sale of Serbian property under force, coercion or in less than fair market conditions. Here again, we will not permit the rule of those who would attempt to fashion a society along ethnic lines.

Creating democracy in Kosovo is the job of everyone. And the time for it is now. Participation, not delay, will further Serb goals in Kosovo. Kosovo's Serbian population, including the IDPs, should register and vote. Not to will mean no legal Serb representation in Kosovo for at least three years.

The Constitutional Framework serves as a roadmap to building a democratic, autonomous Kosovo. It does not affect the final status of Kosovo. This question remains entirely within UN Resolution 1244. What the Constitutional Framework does do is provide strong mechanisms to guarantee Serb rights. But without the engagement of the Serbian people, these rights exist only on paper.