Kosovo 2 years on from beginning of UN administration
By Hans Haekkerup, SRSG - UNMIK
Wall Street Journal, European Edition, 23 June 2001

Disintegration is currently threatening Macedonia, leading many observers to believe that the Balkan fires will never be extinguished. But let me assure you that Kosovo, blamed in some circles for igniting the latest conflicts nearby, is actually moving in a different direction.

Links between individuals and groups in Kosovo and the armed extremists in Macedonia do of course exist, and we at the United Nations, along with the NATO-led peacekeeping forces of KFOR, are doing all we can to cut these links. We're tightening border controls and increasing penalties for illegal weapons and support to terrorists. Indeed NATO has just proposed sending thousands of troops to Macedonia to disarm rebels after a peace agreement. But the impression that the Balkans sliding into chaos persists.

It was just reinforced by Russian President Vladimir Putin during his recent visit to the region. I acknowledged to him-as I did when commemorating the second anniversary of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo-that our inability to rout out the profound interethnic hatreds has been our greatest failure. Still, we have managed to keep Kosovo stable and we are in the process of taking a further crucial step forward in this direction - that is the establishment of "provisional democratic self-governing institutions, and substantial autonomy within the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia." This is the essence of our mandate under UN Security Council 1244, which two years ago gave the international community its guidance in creating a new deal for Kosovo.

With general elections to be held later this year, followed by the set-up of self-government, I am convinced that moderation will prevail in Kosovo.
The entire United Nations Security Council visited here this past weekend to endorse this view with local leadership and to urge Kosovo Serbs in particular to take part in elections and the institutions they will produce.

Provisional self-government will be the most important tool to achieve reconciliation among Kosovo's communities, should they choose to participate. The whole region will benefit from an equilibrium reached here. And only then can work begin on determining Kosovo's final status, the issue which will continue to vex the population here until it is resolved.

This has been and will be a long process of careful steps.

Two years ago today a handful of UN officials drove into a Pristina of barricaded stores, broken windows and sidewalks empty of all but Yugoslav Army stragglers, jumping onto trucks departing northward out of Kosovo.

Kosovo Albanian refugees rushed back in the hundreds of thousands, ahead of the civil administrators who were to take over the shambles of infrastructure and re-establish governance. Many Kosovars were traumatized. A surprising number, however, have thrived with admirable industry. But many were used to dodging the rules to survive, and crime has also flourished along with an ugly ethnic violence targeting the remaining minorities, particularly Serbs, hundreds of whom went missing and are presumed killed.

This time a year ago we noted as achievements the functioning of a joint administration and a steadily improving infrastructure. Utilities, telephones, banking and a civil document system had been restored or invented.. Twenty administrative departments co-headed by Kosovars and two advisory bodies brought representatives from every community into the reality of running Kosovo. Elections last October produced municipal authorities and revealed the ranking of the top political parties.

But the violence that persisted has been a constant reminder that the political process cannot succeed with out a firm foundation of law and order. Last week I promulgated the final piece in a package of anti terrorism legislation which will make it more difficult for armed extremists to operate in Kosvovo and to move in and out of the territory.

At the same time, the indigenous and multiethnic Kosovo Police Service is growing and UNMIK's international police have become increasingly skilled and resourced. We recently combined police with the judicial system in a single " pillar " to strengthen the fight against crime. Cracking the virulent mix of organized crime and extremist political groups is crucial to finding peace in and around Kosovo. Seeing justice delivered effectively, I believe, will do much to undercut the motivation for revenge killings.

These are the two tracks -political self-governance and a firm system of law and order--along with economic development…which will give Kosovo the ability to move ahead, to enter Europe.

Getting this far has not been easy: Resolution 1244 calls on us to develop self-governance without prejudicing the final status of Kosovo. That balance guided the Constitutional Framework, drafted by international and Kosovar legal and political representatives to define the way to elections and the institutions of self-government. The Kosovo Albanians wanted more assurances in the document of imminent independence. Serbs feared the Framework would cut them from the FRY, leaving them unprotected. Compromise here in the Balkans is sadly more often seen as a sign of weakness rather than the basis of concensus politics. In the end, I had to use my prerogative as chief executive to sign the balanced compromise that the politicians here lacked the necessary courage to do for themselves.

Profound distrust runs deeply in Kosovars of all communities, paralleling a sincere desire to join the West, to raise honest and educated families, to travel and to be seen as modern citizens of the world.

Any movement toward stability or indeed compromise can provoke a reaction reminding us of the hard work that lies ahead. And there are always political figures ready to exploit residual fears and prejudices.

Three such phantoms appeared last week : shortly after UNMIK introduced a moderate plan for the return of small numbers of displaced minorities to Kosovo, a politician told media that 170,000 Serbs would arrive in the next six months. A day later, thousands of ordinary people took to the streets to protest a rumored visit of President Kostunica. During the same period, plans for a protective barrier at a peacekeeping installation became an international plot to cement the divided city of Mitrovica with a Berlin Wall..

These myths exacerbated by an immature media and a conspiracy-minded population are reminders that the wounds are still fresh. But we continue our work to convince both Albanians and Serbs that their future can only be here, working together in a unitary Kosovo. We are committed to improving the situation for minorities, to bring back displaced people, to free Kosovo Serbs from enclaves. For this we need the commitment of the Kosovo Albanian leaders to prepare their constituents for reconciliation.

Kosovo Serbs must also realize they have a vested interest in participating in the new self-government and give up parallel structures. The Constitutional Framework contains mechanisms to protect their interests and their rights. These will be realized only if they choose to exercise them.

The Kostunica government, even if criticizing the Framework itself, is supporting the registration. All the people of Kosovo must recognise that only by working together in administering Kosovo will they be able to convince the international community they are ready to take the next step toward resolving the question of a final status. Their leaders should be able to play a more constructive role in the region. They can lend support to their moderate counterparts while containing ambitions of greater ethnic states.

Already Kosovo Albanian political leaders-who have publicly distanced themselves from the Albanian extremists in Macedonia-- are campaigning here like good politicians. The Kosovo Serbs-if they follow the advice from President Kostunica-- appear to be ready to register, a clear turnaround from last year's Serb boycott of municipal elections.

Within the year, Kosovo will have a democratically elected Assembly, a President, a Government. UNMIK will continue to stand in for the federal state, controlling law and order and foreign policy and will have delivered on what they were tasked to do under Security Council Resolution 1244. Whilst this is not the final solution for this unfortunate part of the Balkans, it is a major step in the right direction, and the entire region should be the better for it.