UNMIK/Fr/044/01
FEATURE RELEASE - June 9, 2001

SRSG draft anniversary message      
The Way Ahead: Partnership and Responsibility

By Hans Haekkerup
Special Representative of the Secretary General
 
The second anniversary of the international presence here in Kosovo is a time to look back. It is salutary to remind ourselves what life was like when we arrived-when Kosovars returned from their enforced exile, and internationals came in to help return life to normal as quickly as possible.
 
We need to take stock of what we - Kosovars and internationals advisors-have achieved together. But we must also look honestly and dispassionately at what we still have to achieve. In particular, we have to look forward with new initiatives to give people of all Kosovo's national communities the best (at this time) of all possible worlds.

This time two years ago, the international community was in the final phases of shaping its intervention here in Kosovo when the fighting would stop and the Yugoslav army withdrew.

The achievements since then have been many. They are thanks, above all to the efforts and compromises of the Kosovo people. They are thanks also to many organizations outside of UNMIK-the NGOs and other UN and international organizations here, and many others like the Council of Europe and the World Bank who are regular visitors.

One of those achievements was a rapid return to near normality for most people. The world admired the industry with Kosovars rebuilt their homes. Thousands of others had to be reconstructed at public expense. Outside in the fields, people now move about without fear of mines and unexploded ordnance. Those we have not yet cleared are clearly marked.
Today, most public things now work. The courts, schools, hospitals and health clinics, tax collection systems, railways, repaired roads, radio and television, the postal system, the cadastre and offices to issue public documents, have long been up and running

But this is not only because we worked together to rebuild the public infrastructure. Equally important and, hopefully more lasting, are the new systems that make them (and many other aspects of community life) run better. These are the direct result of partnership, consultation and sharing of responsibility with the Joint Interim Administrative System that Kosovo Albanian politicians and later Kosovo Serb representative signed up to 12 to 18 months ago. In preparation for the big change still to come, namely Self-Government, the administrative departments that take care of many Kosovo-wide issues are now being clustered into embryo ministries and "Kovovarized" with increasing responsibilities transferred to the Kosovar employees.

Examples of the system changes that will benefit Kosovo for many years to come are the way our healthcare and educational systems, Kosovo's main areas of public spending, are being fundamentally restructured and modernized. The previous hospital-centred approach is being replaced by a primary healthcare-based system operated by municipalities. Education has been restructured into primary, middle and senior school phases of five, four and three years corresponding to modern perceptions of child development and educational phases. Its focus is being changed from being identity-based to a personality orientation. The University will align with the Bologna Process offering three, five and eight years for the bachelor, masters and doctor degrees.

We have a civil registration system in place that provides individual identity cards and travel documents, and enables people to vote in elections. We have successfully organized one election, which the world admired for patience of voters and the restraint of Kosovo's political parties.

Alongside a restored and modernized cadastre, the Housing Property Directorate and the Housing Property Claims Commission has begun the long and complex task of settling conflicting claims over private property ownership.
Emergency planning is built around the growing capabilities of the demobilized members of the former KLA who were recruited into the Kosovo Protection Corps.

Our partnership has put in place the first stage of self-government, namely elected municipal assemblies with discrete powers and responsibilities vis-a-vis the central government - establishing thereby a cornerstone of the substantial autonomy we are building together.

OSCE together with local organizations, NGOs and individual partners have, through a truly massive effort, created all the institutions necessary for democratic governance and the development of a democratic society-from an independent Central Elections Commission to the Kosovo Judicial Institute and the Department of Democratic Governance and Civil Society.  Together with some of the world's best experts in democratization and human rights, OSCE is "Kosovarizing" the KPS School and the Institute of Civil Administration that trains Kosovo's future civil service. OSCE also arranged for many elected and appointed officials to have first-hand experience in how modern local and central government institutions are run.

We are on the way to having a modernized set of non-discriminatory laws and legal system, with a new criminal code and procedures and the support of international judges and public prosecutors. Vis-a-vis the state, Kosovars now have legal redress through the office of the Ombudsperson and the courts.

While subject to public interest oversight from an independent Temporary Media Commissioner, Kosovo's media enjoy freedom of opinion as never before.  RTK recently took on the status of independent public broadcaster. All registered media subscribe to principles of democracy and fairness required under a media regulation.

On the economic front, we based Kosovo's entire monetary and financial system on one of Europe's most stable currencies, the Deutsche Mark-soon to be converted in a thoroughly well-planned and orderly manner to the euro. Kosovo's four commercial banks, and there are more to come, are also closely supervised by one of several permanent independent bodies, the Banking and Payments Authority.  The reconstruction and development arm of UNMIK, the European Union pillar, is working hard to develop the private sector, which we see as Kosovo's major employer in the future.

We want to commercialize or privatize the socially-owned enterprises so they can attract the investment that is crucial for turning them into thriving, employment-creating businesses.  We want investors to start up entirely new businesses here and, to that end, we have nearly completed the basic set of modern commercial laws that business demands when it looks at places to invest in.

Agriculture, initially supported with injection of free seeds, fertilizers and livestock, now works with market-based supplies of farm inputs, and with help from professional agricultural advisory and veterinary services.
Environmental protection is being taken seriously with new laws requiring environmental impact assessments for all new projects. Cleaning up existing ones, for example the electrostatic precipitators orders for Kosovo A power plants, is a major priority.

But there were also areas where we accomplished less than we hoped. In some cases that was also less than we needed to.

We are along way from ensuring broad respect for human rights, especially minorities' rights. Violence is still rampant, even within national communities. A weapons culture still prevails. We are having to take special measures to tackle organized crime and terrorism. We still have to convince Kosovo Serbs that their best prospects lie in working with the international community, with UNMIK and with the increasing number of moderate Kosovo Albanians who accept that Serbs have a right to normal freedoms inside Kosovo.

As a result we still have some municipalities that are run by appointed rather than elected Assemblies and others where obligatory committees do not function.

There are thousands of missing persons still unaccounted for, despite our joint efforts
Economically, unemployment unfortunately remains the norm. Many socially-owned enterprises are non-functional. Those that do work face complex legal issues preventing their rapid recovery.

Certainly, some things necessarily take time or are outside our immediately control. The Kosovo Consolidated Budget is vulnerable, as we saw recently, to border closures. The budgets are also potentially vulnerable to Kosovo's general image with donors - donors who still contribute 30 per cent of the operating budget and supply the entire capital budget.
Kosovo needs new laws and new legal procedures as well as its own fully independent and responsible police service.
While most basic regulations are now in place-UNMIK and the IAC passed 207 regulations and 38 administrative directions in the past 24 months - there is no question that bad laws can be made in an instant, but good laws take time.
Kosovo needs early resolution of its complex property issues. Only then will industry attract the investment (and create the employment) it needs. Only then will people live where they really want to in houses they truly own.

Kosovo's special situation is also that it will take time for the feeling to pass that inter-ethnic violence contains an element of justice. But pass it must if Kosovo is to move forward and join, as it has been invited to do, the nations of the European Union. It will take time and trust for minorities to feel they can once again exercise their fundament right to freedom of movement..

From the international community's perspective, these things are all "work in progress". We will be truly satisfied only when the underlying issues they represent are resolved and that Kosovo achieves the substantial autonomy it was promised would precede a final settlement of its status.

The biggest step towards that autonomy was the one just taken, the international community's agreement to the Constitutional Framework for Provisional Self-Government. This means three things. First, Kosovo will have its own Assembly and Government, and Kosovars will have their own President to represent them. Secondly, protection of many human rights are built into the Framework, just as if it were a Constitution. Thirdly, Kosovars will take full control of most aspects of central government, just as they are already doing in local government. International UNMIK staff will be taking a step back, advising rather than leading.

The important thing now is to make it all work. I therefore urge the people of Kosovo, especially those in minority communities, to register in order that they may vote in November to choose they new Assembly. I also urge the political parties of Kosovo should prepare to present themselves to the electorate with serious programmes for self-government that voters can choose between.

Contact: P. Ellwood
(038) 504 604 Ext. 5471
E-mail: ellwood@un.org