UNMIK ON AIR

10 April 2003

COMPETENCIES I

(Sputnik Kilambi-Luan Qorraj)

Hello and welcome to UNMIK ON AIR with Sputnik Kilambi

The long- awaited transfer of powers to Kosovar institutions has finally gotten underway. And predictably, reactions have been mixed. Most Kosovar Albanian politicians feel that not enough powers have been transferred quickly enough, while their Serb counterparts feel too much has been given away and is tantamount to granting independence.

But even amongst Kosovo Albanians, there are differing views, with some expressing fears that organized crime could take over key industries if this transfer of powers goes too fast. Leading PDK politician, Jakup Krasniqi, for example, recently expressed his reservations publicly. UNMIK’s head of Information, Simon Haselock thinks that there are probably a lot more people who share Mr. Krasniqi’s opinion:

Simon Haselock: Many people in Kosovo, if you speak to them underneath the surface have some severe reservations. And I think you will also see that reflected in some of the things some of the more senior politicians have been saying recently, and that is we have to be very careful with this transfer process in terms of not going too fast because the institutions are very young, and they haven’t got the experience of running administrations because of the ten years of them being excluded from public administration and therefore there is a real fear that they haven’t got the sufficient experience and competence to actually manage these things.

A stand shared by a number of Belgrade politicians, including Serbian deputy premier, Nebojsa Covic:

Nebojsa Covic: They understand that we are not generally against transfer of competencies, but the problem for us is – when and how it is done. In the sense – who you are transferring the competencies to, are the provisional institutions competent enough, are they skilled enough and are they actually multiethnic enough for competencies to be transferred.

Not surprisingly, the bulk of the Kosovar Albanian political establishment does not share that view. Although the statements coming from Belgrade were expected, there is an overall feeling that the UN is being too paternalistic when it comes to handing over responsibilities and that it is in fact underestimating the capabilities of Kosovars. AAK spokesman Ernest Luma:

Ernest Luma: This all reminds me of a story of an international police officer who, on a border crossing, two years after the war asked a Kosovar citizen “do you know you need a passport to cross the border?”. Although he did have a passport. The international worker here considered that he needed to start educating Kosovar citizens. Kosovars are more developed and educated than the international community thinks, they have a political culture, a culture of building a country and I think that we have the capabilities to manage other fields also.

The current controversy has more to do with the so-called reserved powers listed under Chapter 8 of the constitutional framework, than with those listed under Chapter 5. Chapter 5 includes all areas where provisional institutions should take responsibility and all these powers will be handed over by the end of the year providing things run smoothly. Chapter 8 however includes the areas of justice, security and foreign policy, and responsibility here lies clearly with SRSG Michael Steiner. To pretend that these competencies can be transferred now is disingenuous, stresses Simon Haselock. UNMIK, he says, has always made its position clear.

Simon Haselock: We have had a consistent message and there has been some deliberate political ostrich behavior, I think, in trying to pretend we haven’t been clear, trying to cast the fact that this transfer is a transfer of additional competencies about chapter 5 and it never has been. Chapter 8 is something, which will come at a later stage, and it is much more related to discussions on final status rather than it is to the transfer of competencies to the provisional institutions.

The fears and dissatisfaction in Prishtina are mirrored in Belgrade - the political establishment there is worried that even those responsibilities that have been or will be handed over will bring Kosovo a step closer to independence. Political commentator Stojan Cerovic, shares the concerns of the Belgrade government.

Stojan Cerovic: It seems to me, too, that it is a way indeed to accelerate the way towards independence. Therefore it is a concession to the Albanian requests for independence and I think the position of Belgrade is somehow justified, and the reservations Belgrade has are understandable. I believe Steiner is doing that under the orders of the international community, so as to remove that problem as soon as possible from the agenda.

But it appears that the office of the Kosovar president at least has no problem with the way things are going. Presidential spokesman Muhamed Hamiti, told us that although he feels that the government is ready to take over whatever responsibilities there may be, things should go the way they are, step by step:

Muhamed Hamiti: The Kosovar institutions are responsible in front of the Kosovar electorate and they should be able to serve this place and its citizens. It is understandable that things should go gradually and I believe that this thing that has happened is a beginning of a process that will take a bit longer, but which will be gradual.

It may well be that this issue, too, will soon be forgotten, if the tendency in Balkan politics is anything to go by. For UNMIK’s Simon Haselock, local politicians tend to lay more stress on form rather than substance, focus on the trappings of power without necessarily understanding or taking the responsibilities entailed.

Simon Haselock: We heard from a discussion in the government, that when they were asked about responsibilities and it was suggested to them that they had education and health as serious competencies, the remark was well they’re peanuts. What we want is defense and foreign affairs. If you said that in a European country or anywhere else in a developed democracy you’d be crucified because people are not interested in armies and foreign policy, too much defense expenditure means less school and less hospitals and these are the issues which worry normal people in normal societies.

In tomorrow’s edition, we bring you voices from the street – what the people think about the transfer of competencies. So tune in again tomorrow at the same time. For now its goodbye from all of us on the UNMIK ON AIR team. Thanks for listening.