UNMIK on Air

July 16, 2004

(Valon A. Syla)

Slug: At a seminar held in Pristina last week, UNMIK and Kosovo’s Provisional Institutions of Self Government [PISG] reached the conclusion that Kosovo’s individual Municipalities must bear the essential burden of implementing and fulfilling the Standards for Kosovo.

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The seminar, entitled “Municipalities and Implementing Standards for Kosovo” was organized by UNMIK and the PISG.

All the heads of Kosovo’s municipalities were invited to debate the standard implementation plan, as well as its difficulties and methods of bypassing the perceived obstacles to implementation.

Deputy SRSG Charles Brayshaw, and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Bajram Rexhepi led this seminar. Both leaders agreed that the Standard Implementation Plan should not be considered an obstacle but the way forward towards peace and prosperity.

According to PM Bajram Rexhepi, there are concrete ways to speed up the Standards implementation process.

Bajram Rexhepi:“Some of the most sensitive issues like the return of displaced Kosovans, the freedom of movement, and property rights issues, are the main challenges for KOSOVO’S institutions. To achieve a better atmosphere and to face such delicate issues a bigger commitment FROM THE municipalities is much needed.”

UNMIK’S Deputy SRSG Charles Brayshaw encourages the municipality heads to use the implementation plan as a practical road map for fulfilling their responsibilities.

Brayshaw echoed Rexhepi’s concerns about municipality heads taking on more responsibilities.

C. Brayshaw: “I think everyone needs to focus how they’re sharing resources among all communities. Also its important to have respect for all the languages so citizens should have chances to get documents in the language that they are comfortable with. And I think that its very important in municipalities where people were displaced in 1999 and later, that they, the people of the municipalities, should be very active in making sure that those people feel welcomed to come back to their homes.”

A good example in sharing resources and dividing responsibilities among the communities is the municipality of Novo Bërdo, which is shared between Serbs, Albanians and Ashkalies as a municipal minority.

Petar Vasic is the head of assembly of Novo Bërdo municipality.

Peter Vasic: “In my municipality the authority is divided between Serbs and Albanians, we there is no opposition… the decisions we take together with consensus. But how do we achieve this? Before and after meetings we discuss the basics of the problem. In my municipality members from all municipalities are employed, Serbs, Albanians and Roma. The number of employed workers is divided by agreement fifty – fifty”

In other municipalities like Decan, which is mainly inhabited by Kosovo Albanians, the main priority, according to its municipal head, is implementation of the economic standard. As such, the Decani working group drafted a plan to boost its local economy.

Ibrahim Selmani is the head of Decan municipality.

Ibrahim Selmani:“Decan municipality considers economic development as its priority. We plan to invest on the road in Decan – Plave. Which would be a fast, short and very profitable road. This will be the first step which would be a forerunner to the development of other standards in our municipality.”

The head of Prishtina municipality Ismet Beqiri also sees the importance in developing the local economy – but he counts the freedom of movement standard as his priority.

Beqiri adds that employing the minority community members is also a key issue for achieving progress on the fulfillment of standards in Pristina:

Ismet Beqiri: “In Prishtina municipality we have a equality of using languages, improvement on freedom of movement, also the participation in public services with employment is around 8 percent in Prishtina municipality which is more then the percentage of Serbian community in our municipality”

Carney Ross, the Strategy Coordinator at the office of SRSG stresses that implementing standards through solid leadership and through the hard work of municipalities is the only way to make things happen.

There can be frustrations between officials in Prishtina and UNMIK but that should not be an excuse for inaction, says Ross.

C. Ross – “The implementation plan describes a heavy burden of actions that must be taken by you in the municipalities. These actions will only happen if you leaders and executives of Kosovo’s municipal authorities make them happen. I know that byrocratic wheels turn slowly, I urge you to take the implementation plan and work out to what you need to do to turn it into a real change. Do not let this become an byrocratic exercise, do not look to others to take the lead, but take the lead by yourselves”

Members of the Serb Return Coalition did not attend this meeting for reasons that were not made public.

This concludes this edition of UNMIK on Air, Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more.