UNMIK ON AIR

NGO’s AND THE DIALOGUE

By Zoran CULAFIC

SLUG: Many in the International Community agree that sincere, open and direct dialogue between the majority and minority communities in Kosovo is an undisputable necessity. And in early July of this year, a group of non-governmental organizations met in Pristina to discuss the need for such dialogue as Kosovo prepares for elections in October.

Hello and welcome to UNMIK On-Air.

Thousands of NGO’s operate in the Balkans, but unfortunately a huge number of them are not focused on real issues that concern people in the region. A common appeal of Kosovo’s civil society is that there must be more efficient way to promote and accelerate democratic processes, which is often dependent on dialogue between Kosovo’s majority and minority communities.

Belgrade based NGO Fractal is one group that is deeply involved in creating an atmosphere for dialogue between the majority Albanian and minority Serb populations.

UNMIK On-Air met with Fractal spokesperson Filip Pavlovic in Pristina last week during a conference between Belgrade-based and Kosovo-based NGO’s committed to this process of practical inter-ethnic dialogue.

Pavlovic says the issue of dialogue is sometimes mystified adding that the main obstacle in establishing it is often the interest of small groups of powerful people – namely, political circles or criminal ones:

“I would like to stress that still in the Balkans we have a kind of synergetic symbiosis of criminal, politics and gray economy that are functioning very well. I’m in this issue some seven years and I can say that we have faced some obstacles where you’d never expect it. And I believe that such an influence still colors the official politics today.”

Pavlovic also asserts, the problem is also that some issues raised between a fragile civil society and NGO’s do not match real and everyday interests of the population.

Also at the recent Conference, Gazmend Pulja, Head of the Pristina-based Helsinki Committee believes that initiative for the dialogue and sincere readiness for it should come from political leaders, both in Pristina and Belgrade.

“In that sense it is of utmost importance that politicians from both sides, competent and relevant ones, should start warming up the relations, establishing the trust and belief that substantial communication is necessary regarding the issue of final status, which is necessary to start, the sooner the better.”

But not all NGO’s working in Kosovo share Pulja’s view.

Bekim Blakaj from the Pristina department of the Belgrade-based Humanitarian law center believes, on the contrary, that the initiative should come from people in small towns and municipalities, rather then being imposed by the top political leaders.

“ I’m not sure, but it seems to me that obstacles are not as big as they look. All we need is good will and initiative, and I think that we lack initiatives for such dialogue. I believe such initiatives should come from the local level, to establish contacts in municipalities… then it would be much easier. Because, my experience tells me that people, ordinary people are ready for contact between each other.”

Adding to this idea, Helsinki committee representative Pulja suggests there is a lack of civil responsibility and civil initiatives to address the issues that Kosovo society is facing, particularly from the media.

“ Unfortunately, that lack of maturity and probably the lack of professional competency results in the fact that media and significant part of civil society put themselves in a position to be a transmission of the most influential political parties, and then they practically repeat, without any creativity and criticism, the stances of these political parties.”

Natasa Kandic, head of the Belgrade based Humanitarian law center claims that NGO’s alone cannot dramatically change the global political situation, but what they could do is create conditions for reconciling the past.

“The task of NGO’s is to keep pressing Government and institutions to take responsibility for telling publicly the whole truth about the past and for admitting what really happened.”

Unfortunately, Natasa Kandic said, political elites in Belgrade and Pristina act without considering the future generations to come.

Pristina has its own obligations, but at the moment Belgrade is the one who must take first step, Natasa Kandic claims.

“That kind of sincere approach does not exist and will not exist as long as Serbia, its Government and its institutions, does not open the issue of war crimes. At the moment we have a situation with the four generals, and if there is such a resistance, if there is such a firm determination not to extradite them, then you realize that there is no political will to do it. And, there will be no serious advance between Kosovo and Serbia, between Serbs and Albanians, without opening (addressing) the issue of war crimes. And now it looks like Serbia is not ready for that, having in mind the stance on extradition of four generals.”

Kandic says that progress has been made in recent years, but she stresses more must be done to create practical conditions for serious dialogue and reconciliation between Kosovo communities.

And with this we close today’s edition of UNMIK ON AIR … thanks for listening us and stay tuned.”