Future Peacemakers in Kosovo

By Andrea Saula and Jackson Allers

Hello and welcome, from the studios of UN Radio in Kosovo…

Opinions of the United Nations’ Mission in Kosovo are wide in scope. UNMIK supporters contend it represents a ‘model’ peace building mission, while critics charge that UNMIK is bloated and encumbered by bureaucracy. In January UN Radio spoke to a group of 90 students visiting Kosovo from the EMA – the European Master Degree Program in Human Rights and Democratization in Venice, Italy – to find out what they thought about Kosovo’s development and about UNMIK.

Actuality They talk about standards, about western concepts but really I think they have no connections with society. And the riots in March are a good example of this disconnection. They told us they didn’t have a clue what was going on before riots.

EMA student Stefano Fiantini. After meetings with many key international and local policy makers, Fiantini’s assessment was that Mission personnel were detached from the local population. In this case, the “they” Fiantini is referring to is the international community.

Milica Matijevic is an EMA student from the Northern part of Serbia. Her masters thesis will be devoted to surveying internal reporting systems in peace building missions like East Timor and Kosovo. Much like her peers in the EMA program – she said problems dealing with human rights and democratization can be framed as a conflict between abstract public policy and practical solutions.

Actuality In UNMIK I saw (edit to) that they are all run by bureaucracy and because of that they cannot really start tackling real problems, and then I ask my self, I’m local in a way and I do not understand things properly here so how could I help someone from Africa for example.

Although he was here for only a short period of time, Irish EMA student Patty McGee said UNMIK and the local government must foster a sense of belonging for every community – something he says is not happening currently. When asked, McGee’s assessment of Kosovo’s future was bleak.

Actuality Serb minorities don’t feel they belong here, that they belong to the whole process. Even people on the street, they don’t feel sense of belonging for what’s going on here, even the Albanian people.

McGee also said that creating a sense of entitlement for all of Kosovo’s communities meant enlisting their help in the development process.

Actuality Who built your country? (edit to) who built my country, my own people. So if you don’t include people in the process of building a nation? It’s not a nation, it’s not a people, and it’s not a country. UNMIK can’t stay here forever. Its five years, yes!?

With few exceptions, the EMA students were visiting Kosovo for the first time, and many expressed concerns over what they said were abysmal economic conditions. Still, others, like Serb native Milica Matijevic were happy to have had daily contact with local Albanian families. All 90 EMA students were hosted by a local Albanian family during their stay.

Actuality We had enough of a chance to meet people from local NGOs, social movements and radio stations but the best part is, that is what I liked the most, what gave us better insight, is that we were placed with local families so we could at least talk to them and in that way to get through academic density.

For many of the EMA students, the trip to Kosovo was also their first taste of the practical realities of building a functioning democracy. As for the EMA program - the European Master Degree Program in Human Rights and Democratization is an intensive one year program. Students finish the first semester in Venice, and then move to complete their masters’ theses at one of the 28 participating European Universities.

For more information about the program, check out www.emahumanrights.org.