UNMIK ON AIR

WEEKLY ROUNDUP

15 FEBRUARY 2003

INTRODUCTION: Hello and welcome to this week’s roundup programme from UNMIK on air!

On the show today…

CUT 1: The fact is that there is a great deal of frustration here in Kosovo and also it stems from the belief that might makes right the person that has the biggest gun…

Street gangs return to Pristina…

and Yugoslavia disappears, and is replaced by a new state. What does this mean for Kosovo?

But first…

CUT 2: ATMOS Music in the bus

50 teenagers from Lipjan… half of them Serb, half Albanian… on their way to an UNMIK ski camp in the dramatic Brezovica mountains. They come from the same town, but live in divided communities and go to different schools. Most of these kids would never even have laid eyes on each other before.

But from the moment they got onto the buses Albanian rubbed shoulders with Serb… and found that they had at least one thing in common… looking forward to a week in the snow. Like Edona Gashi….

CUT 3: Hysni: What are you going to do there?

-Skiing plus other activities.

How long are you going to stay?

- Four or five days.

Are you going to miss home for this time?

- ah no….(laughing)

Up at the hotel at the top of the mountain, Manuela Andrea, an UNMIK local community officer in Lipjan, underlined the point that the children were starting the week as strangers.

CUT 4: I would say that though they live in the same town, they probably do not know each other from before, maybe they have seen the face once or twice, but they do not interact. After one week together here, we hope they will continue their interaction together.

LINK: But how do young Serbs and Albanians communicate, when they don’t understand each other’s languages? There are many ways, it seems, but one bridge is English.

CUT 5: They were trying to teach each other like this is “uje, this is voda, this is “casha” this is a cup.

LINK: Up on the slopes the wind was getting stronger, and whipping up the fine snow. But that didn’t bother these new skiers…

CUT 6: ATMOS: Wind and skiing instructor

CUT: Hysni: Oops, Marigona, why did you fall?

Marigona: The ski went astray…

Is it difficult?

No

What have you learned today?

-How to run skis and how to turn…

LINK: The Youth Centre in Lipjan is helping organize the camp. Bashkim Meta, manager of the centre, says games help kids overcome doubts and fear inherited from the past…

CUT 7: They are still kids and do not think that way, but they had and they might still have some fears, and when they come here they quickly give full reins to their youthful energy, and they get rid of any negative thinking once they start games and entertaining.

LINK: And by the end of the week Festim Bublica and Nemanja Bllagojevic became close friends. Not knowing each other’s language did not pose a great obstacle.

CUT 8: Gesticulation, he tries a little bit Albanian, I try Serbian and we manage somehow.

Nemanja: When we first came here, we were divided in groups, we introduced ourselves to each other, this is how it started, we started to associate, ski together.

Me and him sometimes competed who would ski better, he was a bit better. I think I have learned a bit from him, he has learned a bit from me. Like this…

LINK: The 14-year-olds plan to remain friends when they get back to Lipjan.

CUT 9: Festim: I will go to his part, since I need to go to dancing course and we will meet.

Nemanja: We will continue the friendship, I will take his address and phone number, and he will have mine.

A successful end to the Brezovica camp. Funds have been approved for three more weeks, so more schoolchildren will have an opportunity to try the mountain air with new friends chance. No matter whether the camps help relaxing the tensions between the communities, at least they are a great opportunity for kids to have a wonderful time.

CUT 10: (Manuela)Well done everybody you were very good.

ATMOS: (Leutrim, Krenar, Ivana, Igor…)

JINGLE

CUT 11 : About 6 weeks ago the police became aware that two young women had been subject to abduction, forcible confinement and multiple sexual abuse and rape as well as physical beatings. This had happened in the Pristina region and involved were a group of young man who called themselves a street gang named “the pit-bulls” .

UNMIK police spokesman Derek Chappel, speaking about two separate rapes committed by a self-proclaimed street gang in the Pristina region.

These vicious crimes committed by a group of young men, 5 of whom have been arrested and are currently in detention, have stirred a lot of questions about the direction Kosovar youth is heading in. According to the police, this is the first time in post-war Kosovo that something like this street gang has been encountered.

URBAN FM, a Pristina-based radio-station, specialises in youth and social issues. Ariantin Abdyli, one of its heads and a person who organised numerous programs involving youth, told us that the appearance of youth gangs in Kosovo is not unexpected:

CUT 12: This is a result of the economic situation, you do not need to be too philosophical about it, there’s a crisis and we all know that our families consist of a lot of members. Many family members are unemployed, which means that the kids will perceive themselves as persons who should do something. Therefore joining gangs is the easiest way for them to make some money.

Unfortunately, underlines Derek Chappel, all the police can do about crimes like the double rape is deal with the consequences. Western experiences say that the formation of street gangs should be prevented by society. And that is done by taking away the reasons for the rage of these young men…

CUT 13: This is not a police function, this is a function of the community, to provide sports facilities, to provide employment opportunities, to provide recreational opportunities for local kids and teenagers so that they can make money and they can occupy themselves and they can have a sense of pride in themselves. If that isn’t provided and with a high percentage of young people in Kosovo society they will turn to drugs, they will turn to violence, they will turn to street gangs.

JINGLE…

Last week the country of Yugoslavia formally disappeared. It was replaced, voluntarily, with the new and looser Union of Serbia and Montenegro, which is designed to survive for at least three years before possible votes on independence.

But where does this leave Kosovo? According to UNSCR 1244, Kosovo was a sovereign part of FRY, but under the authority of the UN. Where does it now stand with the new state?

According to a Belgrade specialist in international law, Vojin Dimitrijevic, the position of UNSCR 1244 and the Kosovo issue remains the same as when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia existed.

CUT 14: The continuity between FRY and the new state, Serbia and Montenegro, is indisputable. … edit to Tr 7 … the status remains exactly the same, and this is particularly underlined in terms of international law. So, all of the FRY obligations, as well as all of its rights, are taken over, without exceptions, to the new state, including the Kosovo issue and the resolution 1244.

UNMIK has repeated its firm stance, that the issue of Kosovo’s final status won’t be put on the agenda before certain democratic standards are fulfilled. UNSCR 1244 is the sole authority governing Kosovo until the international community addresses the issue of final status.

Prominent Kosovo Albanian political leaders, as it seems, are fully aware of that firm stance. The Kosovo’s Prime Minister’s advisor, Ramadan Avdiu.

CUT 15: Brussels and the European union have sent the message that, even though they accepted [the new state] in principle, Kosovo’s final status cannot be decided one-sidedly, and Kosovo is administered by 1244 , a resolution which holds certain obligations that Kosovan citizens must fulfill in order to enter the process of solving the final status issue.

And Vojin Dimitrijevic from Belgrade underlines that he believes there will be no violent outcome to the Kosovo question, no matter what the final status will be. He compares the situation with the Slovenia request for independence back in the beginning of 90’s, which resulted in war and bloodshed, and the disintegration of the former Yugoslav state. Times have changed dramatically, adds Dimitrijevic, and the tensions in the Balkans will calm down.

CUT 16:– If you compare the persistence and the patience during the negotiations between Serbia and Montenegro, with the beginning of 90’s regarding the similar request of Slovenia. The request of Slovenia, twelve years ago, was much milder then the one now of Montenegro. But one decade ago no one wanted to hear about the negotiations, and now they are negotiating very patiently. So I expect that the relations between Albanian and Serb politicians will be in that very line.

So with this optimistic point of view from Vojin Dimitrijevic we end today’s program. Thanks for listening and stay tuned